42

40 CHAPMAN'S HANDY NOTEBOOK.

When all is ready, blow a few puffs of smoke into the
doorway of the hive which you are going to take honey
from. If you turn up the hive without so doing, the
sentinel bees will most likely fly up into you face; and if
you do not take it quietly, you may chance to be stung.
The smoke drives the sentinels up among the combs, and
deprives the whole swarm of its combativeness. How it
affects that organ, I do not pretend to say, but so it is.
Have an empty hive ready to put down in the exact same spot
on which the full hive is standing, in that order that the bees
who are not at work may have some home to go in as
they return. They will be surprised, indeed, at finding no
comb in it - no cells in which to deposit their loads: you
will see them running about in great anxiety; but as the
numbers increase, they will gradually cluster inside; more
readily, if you put a single comb in the hive to attract
them, and remain tolerably quiet till you have done your
work, and are ready to return them to their own home.
This substitution of the empty hive for the full one is of
great importance, as it gives the homeward bees a
house of refuge and prevents their straying into neigh-
bouring hives, where they are instantaneously appre-
hended and put to death. Then turn up the hive, taking
particular care to turn down the combs in their own planes: place
the hive gently down on the table. If the box is not all full
of comb, begin to cut out as much as the bees can spare at
the side where the vacant space is; because it is easier to
drive the bees from this end of the box, than from the
other. Do this with a few puffs of smoke, and as soon as
the bees have left the first comb quite clear, cut it from
the top of the box by means of the lancet shaped bee knife,
which is made just long enought to cut through the the combs.
Don't let the comb fall down in the box, but support it
with one hand; and when it is quite free, lift it gently out,
letting it lay on your hand with the side downwards,
which is quite free from bees, and brush off with the
feathers into the hive any stragglers which may be
remaining on the upper side. A good deal of dexterity is
required in handling so heavy, and yet so fragile a thing
as a piece of white honey comb full of honey; and yet such