330 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



then bent over and hammered down flat. The staples are 

 an inch wide. To support the sections at each end of 

 the super a strip of tin is nailed on. It is 13^ x S/g, and 

 is nailed on so as to project inward ^4 inch. The 12-inch 

 T tins are bought ready made. The super is hardly long 

 enough to close the top of the hive. I like this. When 

 the harvest is booming I let the super be shoved forward 

 enough so there will be at the back end a space of ^4 

 inch for ventilation, which is an important factor to pre- 

 vent swarming. But the sections near this ventilation 

 will not be finished so rapidly, and at the beginning and 

 toward the close of the season a cleat is nailed on the 

 super to close fully the opening. Yet I remember at 

 least one year when it worked the other way, and the 

 sections were sealed sooner at the open end than at the 

 closed end. Perhaps it was because the weather was 

 very hot. 



The separators used are plain wood, and are gener- 

 ally bought new every year, for it is about as cheap to 

 buy new as to clean the old, and more satisfactory. The 

 usual follower fills out the super, wedged in with a super 

 spring. 



SUPER SPRINGS. 



Until the introduction of super springs, my supers 

 of sections were wedged together by crowding in behind 

 the follower a straight stick about as long as the inside 

 length of the super, and 3^ x ^ inch. I find the super 

 springs a very great improvement. When the sections 

 are filled into the super, the corners, which have been 

 wet. are not yet entirely dry, and no matter how tightly 

 wedged, as they dry out there will be a shrinkage of the 

 contents of the super, so that in some cases the wedge- 

 stick will drop down. The metal springs will adjust 

 themselves to this, and continue to press the sections to- 

 gether, although with less force, after all have entirely 

 dried out. It is easier to put the springs in, and very 

 much easier to take them out. In a word, the sticks are 

 not always a fit, and the springs are. 



