Hi all
I have been digging into the history of shipping package bees. Here's this

> "Naked colonies," that is, four or more pounds of bees with a queen, but without combs, are frequently advertised in European journals, to be delivered middle of September and after, at about 25 cents a pound. [For near-by points it might be well for some of our queen-breeders to arrange to sell bees on a similar plan. We sold bees by the pound— that is, little bunches of bees, without any comb. For distances not exceeding 200 miles the results were fairly satisfactory. So many bees arrived dead for greater distances, making it necessary to make replacement once and sometimes even twice, we gave up the business in disgust. 

> A package to hold "naked colonies" will not weigh anything like a package large enough to carry the same number of bees on combs of honey. For example, one pound of bees on a comb in the lightest kind of package weighs about 4 pounds. The same number of bees in a wire-cloth cage with blocks of Good candy (sugar and honey mixed into a stiff dough) weigh only about 1 1/2 lbs. For short distances the shipment of combless bees works very satisfactorily, and saves the heavy express charges; for bees have to go at a rate and a half when sent as express matter. —ED. 

Gleanings in Bee Culture, Volume 33.  Feb 15, 1905

note:
> "Good candy," named for I. E. Good, Nappanee, Ind., who was the first to make this generally- known to American beekeepers, altho, before it was described by Good, the recipe for making it had been published in an American bee book (Langstroth, ed. 1870). --- On June 18, 1918, the postal regulations were again amended to permit the mailing of bees without combs. -- E.F. Phillips and Jay Smith

Gleanings in Bee Culture, Volume 49. November 1921

PLB

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