The drawings will show that they are straight at the sides, flat at the top inside, with a knob outside to take hold by, through which is an ½ inch opening to admit a ventilating tube.
The larger is 6 inches deep, 12 inches wide; smaller 5 inches deep, 9½ inches wide.
The late Mr. J. H. Payne, of Bury, author of the "Bee-keeper's Guide," introduced another glass. It has a 3 inch hole in the centre, the purpose of which is to tempt bees to produce additional and larger stores of honey. It is to be used as follows:—when a bell glass is half or quite filled, raise it, and place the Payne's glass over the hole of the stock hive, with the filled glass on it over the 3 inch hole. The bees will bring their combs through, and thus Mr. Payne found that they would store more honey than if the bell glass were removed and another empty one put in its place. Of course the first glass must be smaller in diameter than the Payne's glass, so as to rest upon it.
BELL GLASS. No. 28.
This is a glass super to be placed on the hive in a similar way to the bell glasses already alluded to. It has the advantages of being straight at the sides, flat at top, and without a knob; so that when filled it may be brought on to the breakfast table, inverted, on a plate. The glass lid shown in the engraving forms a cover, and fits over outside, so as not to interfere with the combs within. These flat top glasses, like those with a knob, have a hole through which a zinc ventilating tube is inserted.
GUIDE COMB FOR GLASSES.
In some of our previous allusions to the best mode of inducing bees to commence working in glasses, we have recommended attaching guide comb. We will now more particularly explain how this attraction can be best applied. We have already shown how bees may be induced to make use of guide combs fixed to bars, and the same principle is applicable to glasses. These may be filled with great regularity by adopting the following directions, which we believe have never before appeared in print:—
Procure a piece of clean new empty worker honey-comb which has not had honey in it (because honey will prevent adhesion to the glass); cut it up into pieces of about three quarters of an inch square. Gently warm the exterior of the glass; this we find is best done by holding the glass horizontally for a short time over the flame of a candle; then apply one of the pieces of empty comb inside at the part warmed, taking care in fixing it that the pitch or inclination of the cells is upwards—in fact, place the guide comb in the same relative position that it occupied in the hive or glass from which it was taken. There is some danger of making the glass too warm, which will cause the comb to melt, and the wax to run down the side, leaving an unsightly appearance on the glass; this should be carefully avoided, and a little experience will soon enable the operator to determine the degree of warmth sufficient to make the comb adhere without any of it being melted. It is hardly necessary to state that only the very whitest combs ought to be used. A short time should be allowed before changing the position of the glass, so that it may cool sufficiently to hold the comb in its place. Six or eight pieces may thus be fixed, so that when the glass is filled, it will present a star shape, all the combs radiating from the centre. The annexed engraving shows the appearance of a glass as worked by the bees, in which guide combs were fixed in the manner described above. The drawing was taken from a glass of our own filled after being thus furnished.