COLLECTION OF HONEY. 



Dr. Bevan recommends, as a general rule, that no honey should 

 be taken from a colony the first year of its being planted. 



Fig. 90. 



Fig. 89. 



Fig. 91. 



To make a partial collection of honey, the hive is opened at the 

 top or at the side, and the bees expelled from the combs by puffing 

 tobacco-smoke upon them. The combs are then cut away with 

 knives of suitable forms (figs. 87, 88). This operation requires 

 to be performed with skill and care, so as to avoid as much as pos- 

 sible irritating the bees. To withdraw the queen from the part of 

 the combs which are to be removed, the operator taps with his 

 fingers on the opposite part of the hive, which will cause her 

 majesty to run there, to ascertain the cause of the noise. If any 

 bees are seen upon the combs removed, they may be brushed off 

 with a feather, when they will generally return to the hive. The 

 combs taken away are replaced either by empty ones, or by full 

 combs taken from the lower part of the hive. 



"When hives are constructed on the principle of those shown in 

 fig. 64, &c., consisting of several parts separable, laid one upon 

 the other, the honey may be collected by causing the bees to 

 desert the division intended to be removed by tapping on remote 

 parts of the hive, and by projecting tobacco-smoke on them. 



These operations may be performed in the day between ten and 

 three o'clock. If the country be one rich in bee pasturage, a 

 superior division of the hive may be taken away and replaced by 

 an empty one, if the operation take place early in the season ; and 

 this latter may sometimes be again harvested before the close of 

 the season, so as to obtain honey of the purest and finest quality. 



105 



