FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 199 



ing out of the hive in a swarm for the sake of the pleas- 

 ure of seeing them hustle back into the same hive when 

 dumped down in front of it. 



TAKING OFF SECTIONS. 



As fast as supers are filled they are taken off. I do 

 not think I could be bothered to take off each section as 

 fast as finished, putting in an empty one to take its place. 

 It would take too much time. Neither do I like to wait 

 till every section in a super is entirely finished. Unless 

 the bees are crowded very much, there will be some un- 

 capped cells in the outside sections which the bees will 

 be very long in sealing. If these are waited for, the 

 central sections may lose a little of their snowy whiteness 

 — the thing which, perhaps, helps most to sell them. 



A super is, then, taken off when all but the outside 

 sections are finished. This can be pretty well told by 

 glancing over the top of the super, although sometimes 

 the sections may be all sealed at the upper part and hard- 

 ly filled below. A look at the under part of the upraised 

 super will decide it. The sharp, circular end of the hive- 

 tool is thrust under the supers to pry apart the attach- 

 ment of bee-glue. 



Unless care is taken, bees will be killed when a 

 super, which has just been taken off, is put back again. 

 Sometimes there may be so few bees in the way that the 

 super can be put on quickly without danger. Oftener 

 too many bees are in the way for this, so I put one end 

 on its place, and with a series of rapid up-and-down mo- 

 tions, gradually lower the other end to its place. This 

 gives the bees time to get out of the way, and there are 

 seldom any crushed by it. 



CLOSE OF CLOVER HARVEST. 



Formerly I took off all supers at the close of the 

 white-clover harvest. Of late there has been a tendency 



