FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 213 



This sounds a little as if it was hard work getting 

 sections out of supers, because I have spent so much 

 time talking about the troublesome cases, but these are 

 the exceptional ones, and in general the work is easy 

 enough to be done rapidly. 



TAKING OUT UNFINISHED SECTIONS. 



The empty super being set down and the push-board 

 removed, the unfinished sections are picked off, and the 

 super is put back on the sections as it was before. Then 

 the super and the board under it are reversed, and the 

 board lifted off. Finished sections from another super 

 used for that purpose, are put in to take the places of 

 the unfinished sections that were removed, and the super 

 with its 24 finished sections is put on the pile. 



BLOCKING UP SUPERS OF SECTIONS. 



The piles of finished sections are 20 supers high, the 

 piles being about 6 inches from each other and from 

 the wall. Four blocks J^. of an inch thick are placed 

 under the corners of the first super in the pile, and four 

 are put on the corners of each super before the next 

 super is placed over it. This for ventilation (Fig. 79). 

 The sun has a fair chance to make this room a pretty 

 warm place, and screened doors and windows allow free 

 passage for the air. 



FUMIGATING SECTIONS. 



Y^ears ago it was very important to fumigate these 

 sections, or else a good many of the larvae of the bee- 

 moth would disfigure them. The trouble gradually faded 

 away until for several years I have done no fumigating 

 whatever, and no harm has come from the omission. 

 I do not know why there should be so much change 

 except a change in the character of the bees that stored 

 the honey. Y^ears ago black blood was present in my 

 bees to a larger extent than now. The weeding out 



