PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W. T FALCONER MANPG CO 



VOL. V. 



FEBRUf\RY 1895. 



NO. 2. 



Section Holders. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes me asking 

 if there are any section holders used 

 by any one which can be contracted 

 and expanded at the pleasure of the 

 apiarist, so that as few or as many 

 sections csn be used at any time ac- 

 cording to the requirements of differ- 

 ent colonies or the wishes of the api- 

 arist. As I have used something 

 along the line wanted, for several 

 years, perhaps it will not be amiss for 

 me to describe what I use in the 

 American Bee Keeper so that any 

 can make use of what suits me, if they 

 so desire, for the same is not applic- 

 able to any bee hive now in use 

 which has a cap or hood. All that is 

 necessary is to make the sections and 

 wide frames so they will fit the top of 

 the hive you wish to use Get all 

 the pieces out true and square, after 

 which nail them up over a true 

 square form, so that each wide frame 

 will fit true and square against its 

 neighbor, for our section holder or 

 surplus arrangment is to be made out 

 of a number of wide frames. We 

 will also use separators on these wide 

 frames if we wish universally'- nice 

 honey. If we wish to use them on 



the tiering up plan, the tops and 

 bottoms are to be slotted out so that 

 they are a plump quarter of an inch 

 narrower tnan the ends. If never to 

 be tiered up, then the bottoms only 

 are to be slotted as above as far as 

 the sections come for if the tops and 

 bottoms are made a :^ inch narrower 

 their whole length the bees could run 

 out at the ends of the wide frames. 

 Having the wide frames made, the 

 next thing is to nail on the separators. 

 After using several kinds of material 

 for separators, I prefer tin to any- 

 thing else. The nailing on of this 

 tin has much to do with our liking or 

 disliking wide frames, for if nailed 

 on loosely so as to kink and bulge, 

 the operator will become disgusted 

 with them. The first year or two, to 

 draw the tin tight, I used a hand vise 

 so arranged that I could pry over one 

 end of the wide frame, thus stretch- 

 ing the tin so tightly that it would 

 ring when hit a little. While thus 

 working one day I noticed that in 

 drawing the tin very tight I often 

 sprung the top and bottom of the 

 frame out or in , as the case might be 

 and from this I soon had a way of 

 putting on the tin perfectly every 

 time. I made a form a trifle shorter 



