36

34 CHAPMAN'S HANDY-BOOK.

Further increase will no longer be an object with him.
What he will then desire is to get as much honey as
possible from his existing stock. How this is to be done I
purpose to tell you when I speak of bee produce. I forgot
to mention above that there is one state of the weather
which often induces a swarm to rise later in the afternoon
than two o'clock. When it has been raining in the
morning, and for several days before, and then the sun
bursts out, and a hot sultry evening succeeds; on such an
evening as this, a swarm which has some days baulked
by the weather will often rise as late as four o'clock: have
your eyes well open then, as indeed you always should
amongst your bees, either to do something for them, or to
learn something from them.

How to take Honey from a Hive.

The different hives are thus described by Mr. Wood as
chiefly of three sorts, The Nadir, Collateral, and Super.
The Nadir hives are those where the additional hive is
placed under the original; the Collateral, those where, as
the name implies, the hives are placed side by side. Of
these, the Collateral are much to be preferred, as in the
Nadir hives the bees are exposed to many inconveniences,
among which may be reckoned the labour of mounting up
through two hives, to deposit the honey or pollen which
they have brought home, a task which to an already
wearied and heavily laden bee would be an addition to its
labours. Moreover, the brood combs are apt to be dis-
tributed unequally, so that the bee-master is never sure of
getting a hive full of pure honeycomb, as he can in the
collateral hiving. Super-hiving is where the additional
hive or box is placed above the mother hive. To this
nearly the same objections apply as to the nadir system.
Mr. Cotton goes on to say that the bees glory in making
honey, while they rob the flowers, they give full payment
for what they take. They fertilize the yet half formed
seeds, and help on the multiplication of those flowers from
which they get their greatest supply.
To give an instance: Every one who keeps bees near