1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTriiE 



335 



hoard may Ite on the upper side, there will 

 always be found plenty of them between the 

 honey-board and the toji-bars, if the to))- 

 bars are not right. It is among the possibil- 

 ities, that some device for keeping combs at 

 tixed distances may come in vogue. 



PAGE 69.— MEKTIMG OBJECTIONS TO THE 

 T SUPEK. 



Those who are advocates of tlie T super, 

 meet two of the three objections in this 

 way : If a T tin be put between the sections 

 at the top, directly over those below, it is 

 obvious that the spaces between each two 

 rows of sections will be tilled up, avoiding 

 the large dei)osit of propolis sometimes 

 made between the sections, and at the same 

 time holding the sections perfectly square. 

 This, however, will leave on the tops of the 

 sections a line of propolis at the edge of 

 each llange of the T tins, and this is worse 

 in appearance than the same amount of pro- 

 polis at the corners of the sections. A bet- 

 ter and cheaper way is to use, in place of 

 the T tin on top, a small wood separator 

 about i inch wide, and as long as the T tm. 



To the charge that it is not easy to make 

 the outside and central rows of sections 

 change places so as to get the outside ones 

 tinished up, the reply is made, tliat, when 

 the central sections are finished, they 

 should not be moved to the ontside rows, 

 but taken out of the super, and that, when 

 all but a few outside ones are finished, the 

 super should be emptied and the mifinished 

 ones put back. 



PAGE 71.— GETTING BEES OUT OK SEC- 

 TIONS ; CAUTION. 



Until yon have had some experience, per- 

 haps your safest plan is, never to set a su- 

 per of honey by the hive. Sometimes it 

 may be safe to let it stand there all day 

 when the bees have more than they can do 

 on the flowers ; but, again, all at once it 

 may start the bees to robbing, and demoral- 

 ize them generally. 



PAGE 74.— EMPTYING T SUPERS. 



The machine for taking sections out of T 

 su;<ers, as shown on page 74, although its 

 use is easily understood, is somewhat dith- 

 cult to make. It requires nice adjustment 

 to make it so that the super may instantly 

 1)6 placed exactly right over the bearing- 

 board. The sections can be taken out with 

 no other apparatus than the bearing-board, 

 and, indeed, at times this is perhaps the bet- 

 ter way. The operation is as follows : 

 Place over the super a Ijoard about the size 

 of the super— a tlat hive-cover will do. Now 

 turn upside down both super and board held 

 together, making the super now rest on the 

 board. Place this on a hive or box so as to 

 raise it a foot or less from the ground. 

 Place the l)earing-boarJ on the sections ; 

 press your weight on the center of the bear- 

 ing-board, and then pound gently about the 

 edges of the bearing -boanl luitil the sec- 

 tions settle down tlie quarter inch or so ; 

 then, i)lacing the right knee on the middle 

 of the bearing-boanl, lift the super rim off 

 the sectiajis. If this is done? in warm 

 weather when propolis is soft, it will not be 

 as easy as it reads to start the sections nut 

 of the super. Proiiolis, when warm, has 



that aggravating quality tliat it will not be 

 hurried, and you may poiuid hard enough to 

 break the sectious without starting them; 

 but if you let them stand long enough they 

 will fall by their own weight. So "take it 

 easy; turn around and sit down on the 

 bearing-board, and meditate on the bless- 

 ings you enjoy; and when you have sat and 

 rested about as long as would be necessary 

 to pound the s^^ctions loose with cold propo- 

 lis, you will find that your sections have 

 dropped without your noticing it. 



PA(iE 7i).— USIN(; UNFINISHED SECTIONS 

 FOR BAIT. 



Serious objection has been made to using 

 as bait, or in any way putting back on the 

 hive a section containing the least bit of 

 honey left over from the previous year. The 

 old honey is said to affect the new, and the 

 empty comb is just as good for bait as if it 

 contained some honey. In fact, the bees 

 often, if not generally, remove the old hon- 

 ey before putting in new. Either let the 

 bees empty the sections in the fall, if you 

 want them for bait, or extract them and 

 then let them be thoroughly cleaned by the 

 bees. Better n^e up, as under the head of 

 Selling for Less Money, all sections 

 that have enough honey in them, and let the 

 bees clean out in the fall those having less > 

 honey, and you will probably have enough , 

 for bait. 



pA(;e 76.— separators. 



Experience says, " Never use tin separa- 

 tors loose, as in T supers ; and never use 

 wood separators where they are to be nailed 

 on, as on a wide frame. The objectionable 

 curling of wood separators occurs only 

 where they are nailed on, when shrinking 

 and swelling makes them curl. Where 

 placed loose between sections, as in the T 

 super, the tin separator troubles by bending 

 endwise, while the stiff grain of the wood 

 prevents this, and, not being nailed, the 

 wood separator can shrink and swell with- 

 out curling, even if very thin. Averythiu 

 wood separator will not last many years, be- 

 cause the bees will gnaw it ; but since they 

 are made now so cheaply that it is economy 

 to throw away the old glued ones and buy 

 new each year, it may turn out that even as 

 thin as 30 to the inch may be preferred. It 

 is a fact, that a very thin separator is much 

 tougher in proportion to its thickness than 

 a thick one, because the grain of the wood 

 does not break in slicing very thin. 



PAGE 7S.— narrow sections. 



One bee-keeper protests vehemently 

 against saying any thing to encourage be- 

 ginners in trying a variety of sections. He 

 at one time, as an experiment, used sections 

 of live dift'erent widths, and says no one 

 who has not tried it can imauine the result- 

 ing annovance. The beginner is jiretty safe 

 to'adopt the one kind that liuds favor with 

 the majority of experienced bee-keepers. 



PA(;E loS. r SUPERS ON DO\E'rAII.ED 

 IIIVKS. 



It was at hrst thought tiiat it would be 

 somewhat objectionable to use on the Dove- 

 tailed hive a T super shorter than the hive. 

 P>ut it is found that they have been tlius 



