306 THE INSHCT WORLD. 
cold, and numbed before they have been able to return home 
again.” * 
In the month of March, a gathering of wax is made by cutting 
away the lower part of the hives, where the cakes have grown 
old. The principal honey harvest takes place towards the end 
of May, June, or July, according to the place the hives are in. 
A larger or smaller gathering takes place according to the quan- 
tity of honey ready, and the state of the season. As the bees 
will not see the violation of their domicile and theft of their 





























Hig. 330.—Hives under the shade of trees. 
winter provisions without anger, to get possession of the honey- 
comb with which the hive is filled, you must put these irritable 
insects into such a state that they are unable to injure you. They 
can be rendered peaceable by smoking them. The smoke is 
forced into the hive with the assistance of a pair of bellows, the 
arrangement of which is shown in Fig. 331. If the fumigation 
is prolonged, the bees are very soon heard to beat their wings in 
a peculiar manner; they are then in what is called in French 
état de bruissement, or roaring state. When they stand up on 
* “Physiologie de I’ Abeille, suivie de l’art de soigner et d’exploiter les Abeilles, 
d’aprés une methode simple, facile.” Paris, 1866. P. 94. 
