BEE-ESCAPES AND SUPER-CLEARING. 131 



An " Ivo," or other super, may be cleared in the 

 following manner. First, fix over one of the ventilat- 

 ing holes in the roof of the hive, a cone, and then 

 after administering a little smoke to the bees, raise 

 the super with as little disturbance as possible, and 

 place under it a cloth, or sheet of paper ; anything in 

 fact that wiU cut off the communication between the 

 brood-chamber and the super, or between the topmost 

 and next lower super, if more than one are on the 

 hive. Draw back the quilts that remain upon the 

 super and replace the roof. As soon as the bees find 

 that they are cut off from the brood-chamber, they 

 will leave the super, attracted by light which will 

 then be coming in through the perforated zinc cone. 

 This is a quick and thoroughly satisfactory method of 

 clearing supers of bees, but as all roofs are not bee- 

 proof, they must be made so, otherwise the bees will 

 leave by other exits than the cone, and, if they do, so 

 surely, if the super is left on long enough, will they 

 return and carry off the honey. 



Pin Tbap. 

 One of the earliest mechanical contrivances to act 

 as a super clearer was the Cheshire pin trap, the holes 

 in which may be made either on a separate piece of 

 wood to fix on a box side, as made by Mr. Clutten, or 

 they may be made in one side of a box, if it is fixed at 

 a small angle. The trap may be constructed accord- 

 ing to the following directions given by Mr. Cheshire 

 in his work " Bees and Bee-keeping." Over a large 

 opening in the box is placed a thin piece, slanting at an 

 angle of about 45° to the horizon ; in this are made 



