2o6 A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. 



should this not be desired, give the whole to the Bees in 

 a bottle or super over the feeding-hole and they will 

 carry down every particle of honey for their own sub- 

 sistence or their master's necessities, should he determine 

 to appropriate their stores. The filtering and refining 

 will be done far better by the Bees than is possible by 

 any human means. The strained honey should be 

 poured into glass jars until they are quite full, then tightly 

 tied over. Those honey-combs it is desired to reserve for 

 table use should be neatly wrapped up in writing-paper 

 and carefully put aside, the honey within the cells will be 

 found clear and limpid many months afterwards. The 

 pieces of combs, if any, containing brood should be 

 stacked the same way upwards as they were built, and 

 inserted in a small glass or super ; this, if placed over the 

 feeding-hole of another hive, will be taken possession of 

 by the Bees from below, who will tend and rear the 

 young, whose lives may be thus preserved. 



Bees will sometimes gather honey from objectionable 

 plants, of which laurel and ivy form examples ; such 

 honey, although not harmful to the Bees, may be in- 

 tensely disagreeable to us. Where such is observed 

 prudence dictates that it should be left for the Bees' 

 own consumption. 



Honey — luscious honey — is generally a treat to our 

 little ones for their breakfast, tea, or supper, in place of 

 butter, and nice and wholesome it is too, as well as an 

 agreeable change; but, unlike bread and butter, they 

 soon tire of it, so it is only as a treat that it can be con- 

 sumed in that way. To the buyer of lo pounds or 

 20 pounds this does not matter, but where we keep our 

 own Bees, and our little friends supply us with the 

 delicious commodity by the hundredweight, then an 

 important question arises— How to dispose of our honey.? 



