46

44 CHAPMAN'S HANDY-BOOK.

In the latitude of Auckland, the work of a hive is
suspended for a month or so, varying of course with the
season; whilst in the south, I think their state of torpor
will be found to extend over a longer period, and the
habits of the bee will differ less from those of their
English brethren. Experience, therefore, must teach
bee masters what season is the best for a great take of
honey.
In describing the management of the cottage hive, at
page 22, we said the fifteen days after swarming was
the time to put on
The Bell Glass or Super.
Mr. Cotton goes on to describe that, by means of bell
glasses, or in lack of them, small straw caps, pure honey
may be taken in the height of the breeding season. Put
your glass on the top of your box the very day* the
swarm is put into it; and if it be a strong one, they will
immediately take possession of the glass, and store up
honey there; while the queen will confine her breeding
operations to the box below. It is a very good plan to
fix a bit or two of pure comb in the lower part of the
glass, as a foundation or beginning for them. This may
be done by holding the glass to the fire till it becomes
as hot as the hand can bear; then steadily, yet firmly,
press a piece of pure comb to it, which will melt where
it touches the glass, and setting again almost imme-
diately, will firmly fix the whole comb in its place.
Take care not to put the comb topsy turvy, but in its
natural position, as it stood in the hive where it was
made. Take the glass off directly it is full, and all
sealed over. The bees always swarm with their honey
bags full; and they often take the greatest part of the
honey from a bell glass, as provision for their journey,
leaving nothing but empty combs where the day before
there was plenty of honey. I like the bell glass to stand,
as I have said, on the bars themselves, and not on the
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*Mr. Cotton is wrong, for the brood comb is more generally the
first work of the bees, and this, in New Zealand, is completed in
about 14 days.