Page:How to Keep Bees.djvu/133

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HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT
101

putting the scissors down as we pick up the frame, and put her back as nearly as possible on the spot where we found her. We always use the sharppointed embroidery scissors for this delicate operation.

HOW TO TAKE OFF HONEY IN SUPERS

Lift the hive cover and quilt with a slight introduction of smoke, then lift off completely. Smoke from above for a moment, being very careful not to burn the bees, always remembering that smoke is meant to scare and not to punish. Then loosen the super with a screw-driver if the bees have fastened it down with bee glue, lift it and place it on a bottom-board near at hand. Put on an unfilled super if it is needed and cover the hive. Lift the honey-sections out of the super, brushing off the adhering bees with a bee-brush, so that they will fall on the doorstep of the hive, and place each section as it is cleaned in a basket or box in which it is to be carried to the store-room. This is our usual way of procedure when our apiary is small, and we do this work during spare moments which are not predictable the night before. However, there is one best way to do this work, and that is to put on a Porter bee-escape the night before the super is to be removed. Wise from experience, we advise beginners to study this device and become imbued with a knowledge of its workings to the extent of being able to tell which is the upper and which the under side, lest disastrous results ensue and all of the bees escape