98 MONEY IN BEES IN AUSTRALASIA 



board and the escape tacked over it. To use : gently pry 

 up the super from the brood-chamber — do this at the 

 rear — allow the super to rest on its front edge; give a 

 puff with the smoker, and slide the escape board in 

 between the two divisions of the hive, let the super down 

 on to the board and bring the whole into alignment. 



The bees in the super will pass through the escape 

 to the brood-nest below and are unable to return. If the 

 escapes are placed on the hives at evening, the supers 

 may be removed, practically free of bees, next morning. 

 The objections to the use of escapes with extracting- 

 supers do not apply when used with comb-supers, as no 

 harm is done by the comb honey getting cold. "When 

 bees leave the supers in this gradual way they make no 

 attempt to carry any honey down, so sections are rarely 

 disfigured. 



BLACK BEES BEST EOE COMB. 



Comb-honey, when first capped, has a beautiful 

 powdery whiteness — Black bees are noted for the purity 

 of their cappings (Fig. 48) — but when allowed to remain 

 on the hive for any length of time the cappings become 

 yellower in colour. The constant trampling of the 

 insects' feet soon mars the original delicacy of colour, 

 and the quick removal of sections after sealing will better 

 secure the appearance. Where one or two hives only 

 require the attention of the apiarist it is an easy matter 

 to take off the finished sections, but when there are many 

 hundreds of colonies the whole super is removed, and 

 the unfinished sections used as baits in the supers 

 returned to the bees. 



The Italian race generally do not make such a nice 

 finish to the cappings. The colour is very often of a 

 golden-yellow tint and ^the "powdery" effect is not 

 present. This "powdery" appearance is not unlike the 

 "bloom" on fruit such as plums, grapes, and several 

 others. The comb-honey from Italian stocks often has a 

 greasy, water-soaked look. This is due to the cappings 

 resting directly upon the honey itself. Black bees leave 



