THE PRODUCTION OF COMB HONEY. 41 



Raising the Super. 



When the bees have about half completed the sections in 

 the first crate, a second one should be placed underneath the 

 first. When honey is coming in freely, it may even be 

 necessary to place a third super under the second, a few days 

 later. 



When the sections in the first crate are completed, they 

 should not be left on the hive for the bees to soil their cap- 

 pings by constantly walking over them. 



Taking off the Super, 



As the bees usually glue the supers to each other or to the 

 frames ,below with propolis, it requires some care to remove 

 them without jarring the hive at all. The best way is to 

 gently ease up one side of the crate with a screwdriver, and 

 then do the same to the other side, when the super may be 

 lifted off without difficulty. It should then be placed in a dark 

 room or cellar having one window, which must be left open, 

 and in an hour or so the bees will all have escaped : it is, how- 

 ever, necessary to watch that robber bees do not enter the room, 

 attracted by the smell of the honey (as they often are in 

 autumn), and, returning from their hives, bring with them 

 scores of other bees, which quickly clean out the combs. The 

 objection to brushing the bees off the sections is that they often 

 become so frightened that they tear open the cappings of the 

 cells in order to fill themselves with honey. Another way of 

 clearing a super of bees is to spread a cloth over it, soaked in 

 carbolic acid solution and wrung out very dry : the bees then 

 quickly run down to escape the fumes of carbolic acid, and the 

 super may be removed. 



The sections should then be sorted into finest and second 

 quality, while all the badly finished ones should be given back 

 to the bees to complebe, or, if it is quite at the end of the season 

 and no more honey is being gathered, they may be passed 

 through the extractor and then placed behind the dummy-board 

 in some hive for the bees to clean out — the dummy-board being, 

 of course, raised almost half an inch to allow free passage 

 underneath ; after which they should be done up in brown 

 paper, twelve in a packet, with some pieces of camphor or 

 naphthaline to keep away the wax-moth. 



