[12] The body boxes may be prepared in a similar manner.
When selecting guide-comb, avoid combs with drone-cells; to fix these is setting the bees a bad pattern. Honey stored in drone-combs has more wax, and is coarser in appearance and taste. Having satisfied yourself, by peeping in at the windows, and from symptoms at the entrance, that the original boxes are well filled, place your prepared honey-box on the top, draw a slide at each side of the middle box to afford communication, and insert the little plugs. It is not so well to withdraw the middle slides, because the queen is more likely to ascend from the centre. When you notice that the bees have fairly commenced work in the honey-box and are likely to keep to it, the remaining box C may be added below the stock, which will afford additional room and prevent swarming, exchanging the entrance to the newly-furnished box and sliding in pieces wood to close the aperture of that above.
Should the bees begin making comb in the bottom box, draw two more slides for freer access into the super, as there will then be little risk of the queen ascending, having so much range for egg-laying in the three lower boxes.
In very fine weather, a good swarm or stock will fill a honey-box in the space of two weeks; but a much longer time is usually occupied.
The more quickly the box is filled, the purer will be the colour of the comb and honey, because bees very much discolour their work when they have it long on hand. Before taking off the honey-box, observe particularly that the combs are well sealed at the windows, because, as mentioned at [page 83], this portion of the work is always left till the last.
When you see that all is ready for the removal of a box, select the middle of a fine day for the purpose (not omitting to don the bee-armour). Draw out one or two of the slides, and give the bees a few gentle puffs, either of fungus or of tobacco smoke, from the tube fumigator, which will cause the majority of the bees to descend into the body of the hive; then stop the communication, by pushing in the slides. Next, with a spatula, make a slight opening for a piece of strong thin twine at the front of the box, and immediately behind the thread two thin wedges; with the two ends in hand, work the twine gently forward, bringing the wedges, after, until the opposite side is reached. This will remove any obstruction caused by the bees having attached their combs to the top of the next box, and thus leave the super entirely free for removal. It will be as well, for the reasons stated at [page 58], not to remove the box immediately. After waiting an hour, the box may be taken off, and conveyed to a quiet place. Should any bees remain, they will be glad, after their confinement, to escape to the parent hive; or if you have an empty hive to put over, by gently drumming the sides, the remaining bees will ascend and leave the box at your disposal. The bees driven into the empty box may now be shaken out in front of the mouth of the hive. Another plan is to cut off the communication over night, and raise the hive on wedges, as recommended to be adopted with the super ([page 73]).
Before winter sets in, the box C may be removed and the comb it contains (if well filled) be used for consumption: if the comb be empty, let it remain carefully preserved from moth and insects; it will be invaluable next season. Empty comb may be thus preserved by tying or pasting a piece of stout newspaper closely round the bottom, and keeping the box in a dry place.
Feeding, when required, may be liberally pursued, by withdrawing two slides and supplying a bottle-feeder. Enough food should be given in the early autumn to last until spring.
The chief value of the Stewarton hive consists in the boxes being shallow, so that the combs are more likely to be well filled down to the base. This is a great advantage with supers, particularly when required to be sent to a distance, as there is less likelihood of the combs breaking down. A fine super of honey, that would be valuable, is materially depreciated when it reaches its destination in a damaged state, with the honey running from the cells. For the same reason, when the weather is hot and the rays of the sun fall on the hive, the combs might part from their foundations if there were no intermediate bars, which is now the case in the stock-hive, composed as it is of two boxes. If these two boxes were in one, the depth of each comb would be twelve inches; and when filled with brood and honey, would probably weigh 10 lbs. This is a great weight to be supported in hot summer weather, when the wax is softened by the heat. Another distinguishing feature that the Stewarton hive possesses is the use of the box C, which, by giving increased room, as the season advances, prevents what is often an annoyance to the apiarian, viz., a late swarm—too late to be of any value, and impoverishing the stock by a division of its numbers, thereby perhaps impeding the completion of the super. A further advantage of the box c, is that it induces the bees (who frequently hang in dusters about the entrance) to carry on their labours instead of remaining in enforced idleness.
We often receive from Scotland magnificent boxes of honey; the fine quality is no doubt to be attributed to good pasturage, and to the fact of keeping the stocks strong (see [page 19]), by adopting the means before hinted at; and thus having hives well stored and well populated early in the season, so that they may betimes take full advantage of supplies of nectar in the flowers. Early honey is generally the best in colour.