276 FIFTY YEARS AMONG TliE BEES 



of the super at all. When a super feels pretty light, it is 

 inspected with some care by looking through it from the 

 under side. If it is found that there is no honey in any 

 section in the super, it goes to the dry pile without any 

 taking out. If there is honey in the super, but no sec- 

 tion in it more than half filled, it goes to the -second pile 

 without being emptied, even if there is only one section 

 in the super containing any honey, and that section hav- 

 ing only a few drops. 



BEES EMPTYING SECTIONS. 



The supers of sections in this second pile are called 

 "feeders," because the honey in them is to be fed back to 

 the bees (Fig. 96). Usually this feeding is not done 

 until all the "feeders" are ready for the bees. They are 

 taken into the shop cellar, and if there are only a few 

 of them they are put in piles bee-tight with an opening at 

 the top and another at the bottom only large enough for 

 one or two bees to pass at a time. If the numV.er of 

 supers is sufficiently large, say half as large as the num- 

 ber of colonies in the home apiary, then the supers are set 

 singly all around against the wall of the cellar so as to 

 make them as easily accessible to the bees as possible. 

 When there are only a few sections, if the bees have free 

 access to them they will tear the combs to pieces. 



When all the "feeders'' are in the cellar, then the 

 door is opened wide, and the bees help themselves. The 

 reasons for having these "feeders" in the cellar rather 

 than outdoors are, first, that I want to keep the bees away 

 from, them until the whole of them are ready for the at- 

 tack ; second, that in the cellar they are safe from the 

 rain. The best of these emptied "feeders" furnish "baits" 

 for the following season. 



UNAIARKETABLE SECTIONS. 



The third pile Philo makes consists of those which 

 are more than half filled with honey, but net good 



