59

THE HONEY-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. 57

If you have more pure honey comb than you can sell or
use yourself, run it out in this way: give two cuts to each
comb with a sharp knife, so as to slice off the covers of
every cell. This is in fact uncorking all the bottles in
which the bees have stored their honey. Then set the
sliced combs in a sieve or colander to drain, with a vessel
below to catch the honey as it runs. If you have large
earthenware pots to store your honey in, it is best to let it
drain from the seive or colander into this at once: you will
thus avoid having to pour it from vessel to vessel.
When all the honey has run from the white combs -
and almost every drop will drain from them if you cut
them sufficiently - place the comb in the middle of the
apiary on some fine day, and the bees will take care that
none of it is lost. They will extract every atom of honey
from the wax.
You'll be surprised to find the great difference in the
honey which your bees make at different times of the year.
The best, perhaps, that ever I tasted, was made in the
neighbourhood of a number of almond treees while they
were in full flower. It is one of the few cultivated plants
which materially affect the quality of the honey, and may
be profitably grown to a great extent in this country. The
honey, also, from clover paddocks, is very plentiful, and
beautifully white. Many native trees, too, are excellent
honey producers; whilst some few others impart to the
honey a peculiar, and to some people a disagreeable,
twang. But there is one peculiarity in a great deal of the
New Zealand honey, which I must mention, namely, its
great readiness to crystalize. In some districts whole
boxes will be found with the honey crystalized in the cells
in one solid mass, as difficult to cut through as a very solid
cheese. The white combs filled with this species of honey
are exquisitely white, and the honey of such good quality
that it may be eaten quite as a confection. The comb,
when cut through, shews hardly any appearance of wax;
it seems one solid mass of sugar; and yet the shape of the
cells is clearly discernible.
You can be in no doubt what to do with this sort of
honey comb. It will keep any length of time, if the combs