MANIPULATING. 83 



the amount of comb (wax) used. A lesser amount of labour is en- 

 tailed when uncapping, as it is necessary to uncap ten combs of a 

 normal width as against eight wide-spaced, and each lot contains 

 about the same weight of honey ; this, all must agree, is a very 

 important item. The disadvantage of the wide spacing is that it 

 does not answer so well as the narrow during bad seasons, or in 

 districts where the honey-flow is not very extensive ; it requires 

 a rapid flow of honey to fill them as they should be : therefore, il 

 is the best plan in poor districts to use the ten-frame or normally- 

 spaced super. With shallow frame supers, or any other that is 

 not sectional (containing sections), a sheet of excluder zinc must 

 be laid flatly on top of the frames, the holes of such being parallel 

 with the bars of the frames. These supers are "tiered up" in 

 exactly the same manner as that recommended for supering with 

 section-racks. 



131. Condemned or Driven Bees — Bmuping. — ^Allusion 

 has been made in par. 94 to condemned bees. These at certain 

 times are of great utility to the modern bee-keeper. For genera- 

 tions it has been the practice of keepers of bees to kill their 

 charges at the end of autumn — by suffocating them with burning 

 sulphur — in order to obtain the honey collected by them during the 

 preceding season The straw- skeppist usually " takes up," or, as 

 it is called in the North, " smeakes " — i.e., kills — his bees about 

 September, quite a long time after the honey flow has ceased, and 

 so obtains less honey from them than he would have done if 

 taken shortly after this event. It would be much better if he 

 allowed some expert bee-master to drive his bees about the 

 commencement of August, excepting in places where heather or 

 buckwheat grows, when it would have to be done about the 

 first or second week in September. There are two methods 

 of obtaining condemned bees ; the first is by the ordinary 

 method of Driving (par. 90), and the other by "bumping." 

 This latter is much the more expeditious of the two, and is 

 thus performed: Go to the hives and stop up all the entrances 

 — both those that have and those that have not to be taken 

 — with a tuft of grass placed in lengthways, not screwed up 

 anyhow, or a piece of perforated zinc ; then give the first hive to 

 be operated upon a few puffs with the fumigator, replace the 

 grass, and with the open hands regularly tap the outside until 

 a great commotion is heard within ; then allow them to remain 

 for two or three minutes, withdraw the grass, give a few more 

 puffs, and gently turn the skep upside down. If there are any 

 sticks through the hive, these must be withdrawn with a pair of 

 pincers. Now drive the bees down from the tops of the combs, and 

 raising the skep up in the two hands, " bump" it upon the ground in 

 the exact position shown in the engraving ; this will break the 

 attachments of the combs from the roof and sides of the hive 



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