THE BEE. 



But where the pasturage is not so rich, or where the operation is- 

 performed later in the season, it will be necessary either not to- 

 replace the division harvested, or to put the empty division at the 

 bottom of the hive. 



To collect the honey in the hives of the form represented in 

 fig. 58, p. 49, called the vulgar hive, it is necessary either to expel 

 the bees or to smother them. 



To expel and transfer them to another hive, that which is to be 

 harvested is inverted,as shown in fig. 58, p. 49, and over it i& 

 placed the hive to which the bees are to be transferred. The bees 

 may be driven from one to the other, either by being smoked, as 

 shown in fig. 76, p. 17, or by tapping upon the superior hive, 

 fig. 58, p. 49. 



If some bees remain in the hive to be harvested, they will 

 voluntarily pass into the new hive by the arrangement repre- 

 sented in fig. 76, p. 17. 



When the hive is harvested, either wholly or partially, by 

 affecting the bees with temporary asphyxia, the process is as 

 follows : after having beaten the black powder from a puff-ball of 

 Lycoperdon, it is placed with some red charcoal in the fumigator, 

 fig. 89, the nozzle of which is inserted at the door of the hive. 

 The bellows being worked for five or six minutes, the bees will 

 fall insensible from the hive, when the combs may be removed, 

 wholly or partially, as the case may be. In twenty or thirty 

 minutes the bees will revive, and re-enter the hive, or may be 

 received in a new one if desired. 



If it be not desired to preserve the bees, the hive may be 

 placed over a pit into which they will fall, and where they may 

 be buried. 



To obtain honey of the first quality, the purest combs, con- 

 taining neither bee-bread nor brood, being selected, are drained 

 through a hair-sieve or osier-basket. Their product, called 

 virgin honey, is limpid. It hardens and keeps if potted and put 

 in a cool and dry place. Honey of inferior quality is obtained 

 by pressing the residue of the combs, and exposing them to heat. 



Whenever honey is collected, wax may also be obtained, but 

 the latter substance may be separately collected at the close of 

 the winter, by paring away the lower ranges of comb, taking 

 away by the knife those which are old, black, and mouldy, and 

 those which have been attacked by the moth. The wax is dis- 

 solved with boiling water, after which it is purified and collected 

 in moulds of glazed pottery. 



202. Honey and wax, the products of bee industry, form 

 important articles of commerce in various parts of the world. 



Although the production of wax is not confined to the bee, 

 106 



