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THE HONEY-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. 11

hive three or four inches across, the cap having a small
bit of glass inserted in it, which will serve to show when
it is filled with comb and honey ; when this is the case
take the cap carefully off, carry it to a little distance and
place it on the ground, the bottom upwards, and with a
bunch of feathers whisk off the bees as they appear on the
surface. They will soon return to the parent hive, and
thus not a single bee need be destroyed. A fresh cap
should be in in readiness to be placed on the hive, except, in
that case the hole should be covered by a piece of slate or
tile and plasted over with mortar. If the first cap is
removed early in the season, say at the end of May (November
in New Zealand, remember) or the beginning of June
(December), a second cap may be filled provided the season
is a very favourable one ; the bee owner will thus have a
very profitable return and retain his original stock of hives ;
should he indeed wish to increase it he may wait for an
early swarm, and when this has been secured he may place
a cap on the hive which has given him the swarm, and if it
was a good season he may expect to have it filled. I have
also placed a cap on a very early swarm and also had it
filled, in which the honey in it is particularly fine and
white ; now, as you will be informed farther on in this
work, the above plan of taking the finest honey by the use
of the bell-glass or cap may be adopted, at least in the
Province of Auckland, at almost any season, as the bees
work nearly all the year around.

Position of the Hives
The same writer goes on the say,- Some years ago I was
a very extensive and also a very successful bee owner, and
I will now give a short account of the method I adopted
with them. In the first place I invariablyplaced the
entrance to the hive towards the setting sun , and for the
following reasons - first, if placed to the rising sun they
are tempted to leave the hive, while the dew is on the
flowers, and thus get their wings wetted, and are conse-
quently unable to fly back to the hive. Second-Bees
work last in the evening, and if the hive is placed to
receive the rays of the setting sun they more readily find