SUPERS AND SUPEEING. 83 



soiled feet, their combs would soon be discoloured. The 

 huusemaids only should enter supers. 



When supers are fuU, they should he cut from their 

 hives by a piece of brass wire or small cord. If the wire 

 cut through any honeycomb, the supers should be raised 

 about half an inch by wedges, and left in this position 

 about one or two hours, to let the bees lick the honey 

 from the broken cells, and make all clean and dry. In 

 thirty years we have had three supers only that had 

 brood in them when cut off. The patches of brood were 

 cut out, and honeycombs from other hives were fitted in 

 their places, when the supers were replaced on the hives 

 for two or three days ; and, when finally taken off, the 

 patchwork could not be discovered. 



The only question now to be considered is how to 

 drive bees from supers after they are cut off. The smoke 

 from fustian rags vigorously blown into the top holes of 

 supers is generally successful. Before this smoke the bees 

 run helter-skelter out of supers into their hives in a short 

 time. In cold weather they are more difficult to drive, 

 and on two or three occasions we have had to place a very 

 small bit of brimstone rag amongst the fustian, the fumes 

 of which frightened the bees out of the supers very 

 quickly. The smallest taste or sniff of it is enough to 

 make them run for their Kves. But let us warn the 

 reader of the danger of using brimstone in this work, for 

 the fumes of sulphur are destructive of bee life if not 

 given in the smallest possible doses. And there would 

 be twenty times more difficulty in removing dead bees 

 than living ones from supers weU filled with honeycomb. 



