120 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



often extracted, and it is the most insipid of sweets. 

 Honey needs to ripen slowly in a warm temperature 

 in order to be palatable. Some, like Quinby, advo- 

 cate the ripening of honey in vats or evaporators 

 after it has been extracted. But it is the consensus 

 of opinion that honey to be of perfect flavour needs 

 to ripen in the warm, bee-odour-laden atmosphere 

 of the hive. The bees ordinarily leave the honey 

 uncapped for some time as it thus ripens more 

 readily. Therefore, those who produce an espe- 

 cially fine quality of extracted honey usually begin 

 to tier up as soon as the super is fairly filled and 

 before the honey is capped. The bees have ample 

 room to go on storing honey in the interpolated 

 super, and do not bother to cap the honey already 

 stored above. Thus these supers, three or four or as 

 many as practicable, are left on the hive until the 

 end of the honey harvest, and thus the honey attains 

 its proper ripeness and flavour. 



There a.e others who claim that honey is never 

 properly ripened until capped, and therefore practice 

 tiering after the cells of comb are at least partly 

 covered. 



UNCAPPING. (Plate XIX.) 



There are various knives invented for this process, 

 the Bingham uncapping-knife being the favourite. 

 It is used thus: The frame containing the honey 

 standing on one end and leaning over a receptacle 

 for the caps is held with the left hand, the knife in 

 the right hand begins at the bottom of the comb 



