FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 131 



Another thing of perhaps still more importance is 

 that the stick, being crowded in diagonally, forms a 

 pocket in which the bees are apt to congregate when one 

 is trying to get them out of the super, and it is very 

 hard to dislodge them from this pocket. The springs 

 form no such pocket. 



I am not sure whether it is better to use one spring 

 or two to a super. 



The T tins are not fastened to the super, but loose 

 (Fig. 5.) 



SECTIONS READY IN ADVANCE. 



The work of getting sections and supers ready for 

 use has been all done long before the time for putting on, 

 and something will be said about how that work is done. 



At the time the supers are needed for putting on 

 the hives, they are all nicely piled up in the store-room 

 of the shop, ready to carry out. 



\>ars ago I though I was doing pretty well if I had 

 ready in advance as much as 4 supers filled with sections 

 for each colony. Certainly, if I could average, one year 

 with another, 96 finished sections per colony, it would 

 not be such a bad thing. But if preparation is to be made 

 in advance, it must be not for an average crop, but for 

 the largest crop possible. Allowance must be made, too, 

 for unfinished sections that will be taken off at the close 

 of the season, and also for a good many that the bees 

 have not begun on at all. Being caught short of sections 

 and having to get them ready right in the rush of harvest 

 made me change my mind as to the number that should 

 be ready in advance. Several times I had to chance my 

 mind, each time setting the mark a little higher, for as 

 the years went by the yields of big years became bigger. 

 One reason for this was no doubt the improvement in 

 pasturage. Another was the improvement in bees by con- 

 tinuous breeding from the best storers. 



AN EMPHATIC SEASON. 



The year 1903 was one of the years that emphasized 

 the need of having a big stock of sections ready in ad- 



