SHEET OF QUEEN-EXCLUDING ZINC.
If, as the result of our investigation, we have found that the colony is in an advanced enough state to make use of the super, the quilts must be removed, and the sheet of queen-excluding zinc laid over the frame in place of them. The rack of sections will then be placed on the queen-excluder, the quilts being now transferred to the top of the sections. If the rack of sections does not quite cover the tops of the frames in the stock-box, any spaces that are left round the sides should be covered over with strips of stout cloth. The operation is then completed by putting on the lift and roof.
In doing bee-work like the above, care must be taken not to jar the hive. Bees do not like vibration of any kind, and nothing upsets them so easily as rough handling.
Never open the hive with no definite object in view, except just to see how the bees are “getting on,” but make up your mind beforehand what has to be ascertained or done, and then carry it out as promptly and effectively as you can, closing up the hive as soon as your object has been accomplished. Things that should always be noted in opening a hive are (1) the presence of plenty of food in the shape of sealed or unsealed honey, and (2) the presence of healthy brood in all stages, including eggs; these last, owing to their small size, will require a little looking for at first. If some of the brood appears to be rotting, emitting a more or less foul smell, your bees have contracted a serious infectious disease which, to be successfully dealt with, requires the immediate assistance of a competent expert. This disease is known as “foul brood,” and it is now sadly prevalent in many parts of this country, owing chiefly to the lack of effort on the part of careless bee-keepers in stamping it out. The symptoms and treatment of foul brood will be described in a later paper.
Do not let an accidental sting or two interfere with your work; the pain will go off in a minute or two, but in cases where the whole colony is allowed to get into an irritated state, the only way of reducing it to order will be to leave the work in hand and subjugate them with repeated smoking, but this is hardly good advice to the beginner.
I know of no really effective remedy for bee-stings. Many things are recommended as being more or less beneficial, such as blue-bag, dock-leaf, the juice of the fig-tree, etc. The best thing to do is to extract the sting at once with the poison-bag attached, taking care not to compress the latter, and then apply a little strong liquid ammonia; this will have the effect of somewhat neutralising the poison, which is acid. Sucking the spot before the poison has time to disseminate itself in the blood, does good. These measures, if taken promptly, will considerably alleviate the unpleasant after-effects of swelling and irritation which sometimes follow. The poison contained in the bee-sting does not seem to be really harmful to the system; the chief danger seems to be in excessive swelling, but such cases are so rare that the beginner has no ground for apprehension.
Though most people like sections of comb-honey, some prefer to have the extracted honey, which, when put up in bottles or jars, is a more convenient article for winter use.
In former times the only way of separating the honey from the comb was by cutting the honeycomb up and letting it drain through a canvas-strainer in a warm temperature. This process is apt to be a messy and tedious one, and the honey produced by it is more or less deep in colour from the large amount of pollen that it contains.
Nowadays, thanks to the invention of the honey-extractor, we may extract the pure, clear honey from the comb without having to cut it up, and the same frame of comb may be returned to the bees again and again, to be repeatedly refilled with honey, thus saving the bees a large amount of labour in comb-building. The details and working of the honey-extractor will be fully described in the next paper.
Frames of comb intended for extracting are usually not so deep as the ordinary standard frames in the stock-box: they are then called shallow frames, and the super containing them is called a shallow-frame box. The shallow-frame box is made like the stock-box, and contains generally ten shallow frames fitted with metal ends. Each frame must, of course, be fitted with at least a starter of comb-foundation, and in placing the box of shallow frames on the hive, a sheet of queen-excluding zinc should be placed under it, as with the rack of sections.