642 



July 26, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



which the editor may be kind enough to reproduce here. 

 I'm sorry to say it doesn't show as plainly as it might what 

 a T super is. The 3 T tins are shown loose, and you will 

 see at the bottom of the super the supports for them, which 



T-TIN3 JM) BOTTOM OF T SUPER 



are here squares of sheet-iron nailed on. The bent staples 

 are later, and perhaps a little better. 



I'm not sure what you mean by a regular No. I super. 

 but one advantage of a T super is that the contents can be 

 taken out en masse, and then the sections can be very easily 

 taken apart. Another advantage is that there is no wood 

 either under or over the sections, making them come nearer 

 to the top-bars of the brood-frames, and making a pile of 

 supers more compact, because each super is only J^-inch 

 higher than a section. 



It seems a very strange inconsistency that allows T 

 tins to be listed in a catalog and not the T super, for with- 

 out the T super one will have no use for a T tin. For some 

 reason no manufacturer pushes T supers, and yet there are 

 not a few who produce section-honey on a large scale who 

 will have no others. As for myself, I have tried about all 

 the surplus arrangements for section honey that have been 

 put on the market, some of them on a pretty large scale, 

 and as yet have found nothing else to equal the T super. 

 I have seen it condemned, but when I learned how it was 

 used, without taking advantage of its best features, I don't 

 wonder at its being condemned. I have no personal interest 

 in the affair, it is no invention of mine, but it is my delib- 

 erate conviction that at present there is no better super in 

 existence than the T super. 



3. The hives on which Mr. Doolittle uses supers of 44 

 sections each are the 10-frame Langstroth, holding, of course. 



sible, and is in reality a mere variation of the Miller bottom- 

 board, which hardly entitles it to a change of name. 

 Although the reversible or Dazenbaker bottom-board is my 

 own invention, I now prefer a bottom-hoard that does not 

 need reversing, as shown in "Forty Years Among the Bees," 

 page 39. The bottom-board at the right is open, as used, 

 in winter, giving a 2-inch space under the frames. In the 

 summer a false bottom is shoved under, as shown at the 

 left, but almost any old thing can be shoved under to fill, 

 up 1*4 or 1 J/2 inches of the space. 

 6. One of the very best. 



BOTTOM-BOARD AND FALSE BOTTOM 



10 Langstroth frames. I all sections. 3'4 x 5^1i XI !Hs, run cross- 

 wise. 



4. Not necessarily. 



5. What is called the Danzenbaker bottom-board is rever- 



The T Super and 4X Section 



1. Just why do you like the T-super better than any- 

 other kind? 



2. Just how long ought the T-super to be made inside? 



3. If you had 100 supers taking the slotted section-holders, 

 and wanted to buy 100 others, what kind would you 

 buy? I hat is, do you like the T-supers enough better so- 

 that you would make the change? 



4. I believe the T-super is lengthened to fit the regular 

 hives by putting cleats on the ends. Would it not be bet- 

 ter to make them 20 inches long outside, and take up the 

 extra space by nailing boards inside, so as to make the 

 super warmer ? 



5. If you were to begin bee-keeping over again, would 

 you adopt the 4% section? Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. Among a number of reasons, the all-suffi- 

 cient one is that I think I can get more satisfactory results 

 with less time and labor than with any other kind. There is 

 no reason why I should be prejudiced in favor of the T-super 

 beyond the fact of its real excellence. It is no invention of 

 mine — that honor belongs to C. H. Dibhern, although it may 

 have been original also with some one else. I got the idea 

 in the first place from D. A. Jones of Canada, and I could 

 never learn from whom he got it. Possibly in some round- 

 about way from C. H. Dibbern. Fver since adopting the 

 T-super I have been on the lookout for something better,, 

 and have given a pretty fair trial tr, about all the new 

 things that have claimed to be improvements, expecting to 

 make a change when I found something better. As yet 

 I have found nothing better. Others, however, have con- 

 demned the T-super in unmeasured terms ; and it is likely 

 that I should condemn it in the same terms if I should be 

 compelled to use it as wrongly as have some. 



2. Mine are l~-Mj long inside. I don't know whether any 

 other length would do better. 



3. That's an easier question than some others. If T 

 had 100 hives taking a frame of a certain size, I would 

 hesitate about getting 100 that would take a frame of a 

 different size, if there were only a little difference in favor 

 of the new kind, because I would not want the inconvenience 

 of having the two sizes in the same apiary. But no such 

 inconvenience attends the use of two different kinds of 

 supers at the same time, and the second hundred would most 

 assuredly be T-supers. I had hundreds of wide frames in 

 use, and had satisfactory results with them; but I threw 

 I hem all away and replaced them with T-supers when I 

 found the latter were enough better. It was a waste, but 

 I have never regretted it. 



4. I doubt that the difference would count much. I 

 have a few made that way, and don't like them any better. 

 They are, of course, a little heavier. 



5. I think I should. 



Honey as a Health-Food. — This is a 16-page honey- 

 pamphlet intended to help increase the demand for honey. 

 The first part of it contains a short article on "Honey as 

 Food,'" written by Dr. C. C. Miller. It tells where to keep 

 honey, how to liquefy it, etc. The last part is devoted to 

 "Honey-Cooking Recipes" and "Remedies Using Honey." 

 It should be widely circulated by those selling honey. The 

 more the people are educated on the value and uses of 

 honey, the more honey they will buy. 



Prices, prepaid — Sample copy for a two-cent stamp; 5tt 

 copies for 70 cts.; 100 for $1.25; 250 for $2.25; 500 for $4.00; 

 or 1,000 for $7.50. Your business card printed free at the 

 bottom of front page on all orders for 100 or more copies. 

 Send all orders to the office of the American Bee Journal. 



