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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 10. 



The Flat-a-Top Comb Honey Super System. 



BY S. A. DEACON. 



Dr. Miller : — I believe that some difference of opinion 

 exists between Mr. E. R. Root and yourself, concerning tbe 

 fixing up of sections in the supers. You favor the T tin rest ; 

 Mr. Root the section-holder. In an eager desire for improv- 

 ing our fixtures, and for facilitating our operations, it has 

 always seemed to me that we show too much proneness to 

 renounce simple, though heretofore perfectly satisfactory devices, 

 for something more complicated, and too frequently overshoot 

 the mark ; it seems to be in the nature of most of us to be 

 always desirous of exercising and exhibiting our ingenuity in 

 connection with our pursuit. Some new devices do certainly 

 " catch on " at least /or a time ; the majority of the fraternity 

 that is to say, if the new device has any merit in it at all) 

 adopt it, and perhaps like it immensely for a time, till objec- 

 tions to it, one by one, on this point or on that, manifest them- 

 selves, and in the end the pile of obsolete bee-keeping furni- 

 ture in the backyard grows sensibly bigger ; the whim for 

 trying something new has been indulged, and without venting 

 vain regrets on the loss of time and cash expended on its in- 

 dulgence, we gladly return to the more simple old methods, 

 and with a mind more appreciative of their elHciency than we 

 had when, in our conceit and desire for fame, we contemptu- 

 ously turned our back upon them. Am I not right ? Let me 

 give one instance, in ray own experience, and in connection 

 with this matter of fixing sections in the supers. 



Like most beginners, I was decidedly ardent, sanguine, 

 and enthusiastic. I made my own hives, and then ordered 

 some thousands of 2-inch sections. But my own made hives 

 were far from satisfactory, so hearing of the dovetailed hive 

 and its very moderate cost, I decided to drop amateur carpen- 

 tering, and so ordered a lot of these. From various causes, 

 drouthy and otherwise, my 2-inch sections remained for a 

 deplorably long time unpacked. One fine day it dawned 

 on me that the dovetailed hives only accommodate 1%-inch 

 sections. Here was a dilemma ! With very slender means I 

 could not afford to waste my 2-inch ones, so I boldly deter- 

 mined to cut them down. Reducing their general width by Jg 

 inch with a plane was easy work enough, but this narrowed 

 the slots, and after rasping and cutting some 300 of these 

 open with a knife, I gave the task up in despair, and reck- 

 lessly ordered some thousands of sections to fit the section- 

 holders, i. e., 1% inch, and relegated the now useless 2-inch 

 ones to the lumber loft. 



As I and my bees were kept in idleness for months (wait- 

 ing not for "the clouds to roll by," but for them to rollup), 

 after these narrower sections reached me, I had nothing much 

 to do beyond studying the theoretical part of the business in 

 which I had so enthusiastically embarked, and I had not got- 

 ten very far with my books and papers ere I made the dis- 

 covery that wide sections were quite disapproved by the more 

 experienced old hands, and that no sensible bee-keeper should 

 ever think of using sections wider than " 7 to the foot." Of 

 course ! I saw it at once ; a section full of honey is a section 

 full of honey, and will fetch about one price whether it holds 

 13 ounces or 16. So having still a few dollars left, and fully 

 seeing the advantages to be derived by the bee-keeper from 

 mulcting the honey-consuming portion of the public of two or 

 three ounces per section, I at once (quite regardless of the 

 rather important fact that the section-holders would not 

 accommodate them) sent off an order for several thousand 

 sections " 7 to the foot." Only when I came to fit them in 

 the " holders" did it occur to me that I had aqain made a 

 donkey of myself, and with rueful face I saw my little capital 

 diminishing, and this new lot of sections sent to keepcompany 

 with their bigger brothers in the lumber loft, and where they 

 would about average the right width, 1%, though that didn't 

 help me much. 



When at last the clouds did roll up, and the longest 

 drouth known to the oldest man began to look like becoming 

 a memory, and my resources were so attenuated as to render 

 the purchase of more sections (to fit these wretched section- 

 holders, and commensurate with the expected honey-flow) 

 quite an impossibility, I devoted many long hours and sleep- 

 less nights trying to devise some plan whereby, having only 

 the "holders" for 1% inch sections, I might utilize these 

 thousands of obsolete 2-inch and much belauded 7-to-the-foot 

 ones. I once thought I had solved the matter, when I read 

 your statement that the T rest had, amongst other advantages 

 over the " holder" — that with the T rest any size of section 

 could be used. I moodily opened my purse and took stock of 

 the few coins hiding about in its folds and corners, and was on 

 the eve of shaking them all out and investing them in T tin 

 rests, when it struck me that Root's supers " weren't built 

 that way," and that if I substituted T tin rests for holders I 

 should have to cut them down half an inch or more, Jnd so 

 spoil them for extracting some day with the shallow frames; 

 so I was foiled again ! 



I then started wondering in what way sections were fixed 

 in supers before the restless ingenuity of the honey-producer 

 conceived these tin rests and holders. I called to mind cer- 

 tain wood-cuts of sections in crates, both in books and in 

 illustrated price catalogues. A pile of these was soon before 

 me, and my joy was unbounded, and my troubles at an end, 

 when my gaze rested on a wood-cut in "A Modern Bee-Farm," 

 by S. Simmins — of "Simmins' Simple Rack;" and when I 

 read on page 90, as follows — "This rack is very simple, has 

 no bottom rests at all, and allows the sections to stand close 

 upon the frames, and upon each other. Nothing can excel 

 the simplicity, and, at the same time, the efficiency of this 

 arrangement. Practice absolutely confirms the fact that by 

 dispensing with these useless passages, the surplus stored 

 above the brood-nest is largely augmented" — "Eureka!" I 

 eried ; and now 2-inch, 1% and 7-to-the-foot are all ready in 

 these simple racks for the coming flow; and I don't care a 

 two-penny bit if I never see a holder or a tin rest again — I've 

 no use for them myself. 



I must tell you, though, that I didn't make my racks 

 quite as shown in Simmins' sketch. I have the presumption 

 to think that I very decidedly improved on Mr. Simmins' plan. 

 What I did (and, with your approval, would advise others to 

 do, who wish to try various widths of sections, as also to test 

 the correctness of Mr. Simmins' assertion about more honey 

 being gotten by placing the sections right flat on top of the 

 brood-frames, and the next tier right flat on top of that) — I 

 say what I did was this : I made — let us call it a box without 

 top or bottom ; it takes just 3 sections crosswise (i. e., 12% 

 inches wide, inside measurement), and 19J^ inches long — also 

 inside measurement. Its height is just that of the sections — 

 Hi inches. The ends are of K-inch deal, and the sides %, 

 and it weighs — nothing — or nothing to speak of. One end- 

 piece has two thumb-screws. (One can buy a " screw-box " 

 for a dollar, and make one's own screws — they often come in 

 wonderfully handy.) 



This rack holds 33 7-to-the-foot sections, and a %-inch 

 follower, against which the screws work, making everything 

 as taut and compact as you like, and you can fill it with any 

 width of section you've a mind to. It costs about 3 or 4 cents 

 for lumber and nails. To fill it, screw up, and then to handle 

 it, is quite a pleasure, amounting almost to fascination, so 

 light, snug, handy and taut does it feel. 



But now. Doctor, I want to know what you have to say 

 aboutthis "flat-a-top " system, this " no spaces" system — i.e., 

 no spaces or bee-way (which I have never as yet found in the 

 insects' natural habitat — the hollow oak-tree) between the 

 brood and honey, and between tier and tier of sections, all of 

 which is quite opposed to Nature. Such a rack just fits the 

 8-frame dovetailed hive. 



