MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 51 



. In this way I have put the supers in a whole apiary on the escape- 

 boards without killing scarcely a bee or arousing the anger of a single 

 colony. It has taken some time to tell this in writing; but when the "trick" 

 IS once learned, it takes but a moment to do it, and that with an ease which 

 seems like magic, even with three or four filled supers on the hives. This 

 is one of the easy "short cuts" I use when taking off supers at the end of 

 the season. An editor of one of the bee papers, after seeing me put on 

 escape-boards in this way, wrote a friend about it in these words : "It was 



tuCl-UOER.- 



HOW TO PUT ON THE ESCAPE-BOARD. 



a caution with what speed and dexterity he could manipulate the hives 

 and supers. With his practice and skill he killed very few bees, and he 

 did not irritate them either." I have dwelt on this because it saves so much 

 of the labor and backache required with the usual way^s of clearing the 

 supers of bees when taking off honey, at the end of the season. After the 

 whole are treated in this way I am off for home, as this is all there is to be 

 done at this visit, this being the ninth in number since we commenced op- 

 erations in the spring.. 



CHAPTER X. 



TAKING OFF THE HONEY AND STORING IT IN THE OUTYARD. 



From two to four days later, according to the weather, I go again, 

 the same making the tenth visit, when the supers are taken off, free from 

 bees. I said, "according to the weather," for the reason that a hot, 

 clear day is not suited for the work we must do at this time, whefl 

 there is no honey coming in from the fields. Robber bees would drive 

 us home long before we could get the work done. The day desired is a 

 cool cloudy one — one so much so that it will keep the bees in their hives. 

 1 do not usually go till afternoon, as by noon it can generally be told 

 what the rest of the day will bring forth. 



In taking off the supers, those that have no honey ill them are 

 piled on top of each other till they are six ,t6 ten high, when a cover 

 is put on each pile, and a 25-lb. stone on the cover, where they are left 

 until wanted for use the next year. As many of those having honey 

 in them as I can carry are packed into the auto or wagon, in accord 

 with which I have with me; and if there are more than I can carry they 

 are piled up, as were the empty supers, seeing that each pile is bee- 

 proof, to wait till I can draw them hgme, The tiered-up hives are now 



