To make holes in the top after the combs are made,—Mark out the top as directed for making hives and boxes. A centre bit or an auger bit with a lip or barb is best, as that cuts down a little faster than the chip is taken out, leaving it smooth; when nearly through, a pointed knife can cut the remainder of the chip loose, and it can be taken out; if it is between the combs, it is well; if directly over the centre of one, it is a little better; with the knife take out a piece as large as a walnut; even if honey is in it, no harm will be done. The bees will then have a passage through from either side of the comb.
After you have opened one hole, very likely the bees will want to see what is going on over head, and walk out to reconnoitre. To prevent their interference, use some tobacco-smoke, and send them down out of your way, till your hole is finished. Now lay over this a small stone or block of wood, and make the others in the same way. When all are done, blow in some smoke as you uncover them, and put on your box. This process is not half so formidable as it appears; I have in this way bored hundreds. You will remember my hives are not as high as many others keep them, they are in about as convenient a position as I can get them. This method saves me the trouble of sticking the guide-combs in my hives; also, the necessity of covering or stopping the holes. Dr. Bevan and some others have made a cross-bar hive, instead of nailing on a top in the usual way; a half-inch board of the right length is cut into strips, some over an inch wide, and half an inch apart, across the top. It is plain that in such a hive a bee can pass into the box whenever it arrives at the top, without difficulty. I will here repeat the objection to allowing too much room, to pass into the boxes, that you may see the disadvantages of the extremes of too little and too much room. In these cross-bar hives, the animal heat rises into the box from the main hive, making it as warm as below; the queen goes up with the bees, and finding it warm and convenient for breeding, deposits her eggs; and young brood as well as honey is found there. When we think it full, it is then indispensable to return it, if taken off, till they hatch, (otherwise they spoil it by moulding), which makes the combs dark, tough, &c. Another objection to such open tops is, that open bottom boxes must be used, which are not half as neat for market.
TO BE TAKEN OFF WHEN FILLED.
This advantage attends glass boxes: while being filled, the progress can be watched till finished, when they should be taken off to preserve the purity of the combs. Every day the bees are allowed to run over them, renders them darker. Consequently, when our bees are a long time filling a box, it is not as purely white as when filled expeditiously.
TIME TAKEN TO FILL A BOX.
Two weeks is the shortest time I ever had any filled and finished. This, of course, depends on the yield of honey, and size of the swarm; three or four weeks are usually taken for the purpose. I have before said that the first yield of honey nearly fails in this section, usually about the 20th of July; there are some variations, later or earlier, according to the season. In other places it may be much later.
WHEN TO TAKE OFF BOXES PART FULL.
It can be ascertained by occasionally raising the cover to your glass boxes. When no more is being added, all boxes that are worth the trouble should be taken off; if left longer the comb gets darker, and such cells of honey as are not sealed over, (and sometimes the majority are such,) the bees generally remove down into the hive.
TOBACCO SMOKE PREFERRED TO SLIDES.
When boxes are to be taken off, if a slide of tin, zinc, &c., is used to close the holes, some of the bees are apt to be crushed, others will find themselves minus a head, leg, or abdomen, and all of them be irritable for several days. A little tobacco smoke is preferable, as it keeps all quiet. Just raise the box to be taken off sufficient to puff under it some smoke, and the bees will leave the vicinity of the holes in an instant; the box can then be removed, and another put on if necessary, without exciting their anger in the least.