MANAGEMENT OF HONEY. 227 



are permitted to remain, serves to darken the honey; 

 and if the honey harvest continues it is a serious loss, 

 as a day or two is quite important to them at such a 

 time. Sometimes they will fill boxes in from twelve 

 to fifteen days, at others twice that time is required. 

 The proper way is to peep in through the glass and 

 watch their progress. 



In taking off boxes I prefer using smoke to drive 

 the bees back. Raise your box a little with a strong 

 knife or chisel, blow smoke under for a few minutes, 

 to alarm the bees and drive them below ; then remove 

 the box, and if desirable, replace it with an empty 

 one. 



I prefer taking boxes off in the evening, and set- 

 ting them close together, inverted, in our honey room. 

 Place an empty box, say a foot square, or any other 

 size, over some of the openings in a central part of 

 your lot of boxes ; the bees will generally collect and 

 cluster in this before morning, when you can remove 

 it to the apiary and invert it. Each bee will return 

 to its own hive, except, perhaps, a few young ones. 



Occasionally a box will have the queen in it when 

 taken off. If so, she will attract bees from other 

 boxes, and it will be quite impossible to drive them 

 out. When this is likely to occur, it would be well 

 to mark each box as taken off, so it could be returned 

 with the queen. Many hives are lost by taking the 

 queen away in this manner, and the cause of the loss 

 never suspected by the owner. "When boxes are 

 taken into the honey room, the windows and doors 

 should be kept open in the morning, to permit all the 



