Oft. 4, 1906 



833 



American Itee Journal 



onfributed 

 Articled 



Wide-Frame Super Vs. T-Super Once More 



BY F. GRKINER 



On pages 641 and 642, Dr. Miller gives his reasons for 

 preferring the T-super to others. The principal one is that 

 a T-super is more compact, and brings the sections closer to 

 the brood than any other contrivance. The other reason he 

 gives, that of taking the filled boxes out en masse, I con- 

 sider of no importance. Perhaps Dr. Miller has not used a 

 good wide-frame super from which the sections may be re- 

 moved in less time than from a T-super. Many a bee-keeper 

 has been surprised at the ease and the speediness with 

 which the filled sections come out of my wide frames, and 

 the frames out of the super when handled by one accus- 

 tomed to the work. But any super which admits an easy 

 removal of the filled sections can not meet with objections 

 on these grounds, and for the sake of the argument I will 

 admit that the T-super is the equal of other supers in this 

 respect. 



Let us return now to Dr. Miller's first-given reason of 

 the super being more compact and bringing the sections 

 closer to the brood. Let us examine into the merits of this 

 case. 



What is the experience of other bee-keepers? James 

 Heddon invented the break-joint honey-board to be placed 

 between brood and sections ; he advocates its use, and W. 

 Z- Hutchinson, as well as others, are in favor of its use. 

 Evidently they have not discovered the disadvantage of 

 thus increasing the distance between the brood-chamber 

 and honey receptacle. If there was a marked advantage in 

 bringing the sections as close to the brood as the T-super 

 does, these men of experience would have seen it. As keen 

 an observer as Doolittle, continues to use the wide-frame 

 super, which increases the distance between brood-frames 

 and sections by ,'+, or possibly 5-16, inch against that of 

 the T-super ; he has not discovered it to be a drawback. 

 Many beekeepers even use a queen-excluding metal sheet 

 between brood and section super. Theoretically, can any- 

 thing be invented to hinder the bees and to take possession 

 of a super, worse than that ? Can there be anything more 

 disgusting put on the inside of a hive than that ? Still, bee- 

 keepers continue to use these instruments of torture with- 

 out finding a serious drawback therein. 



In 1886, I saw the first T-super during a trip through 

 Virginia. The cheapness and simplicity of it, as well as 

 this very fact, that by the use of it, sections were brought 

 very close to the brood, induced me to fit up an apiary in 

 the Shenandoah Valley with such "["-supers. After using 

 them for 2 years I was glad enough to sell them at a song. 

 About 10 years later, being persuaded by my friend, E. H. 

 Perry, I gave them another trial, building some SO or 60 of 

 such. I have used them ever since, more or less, and have 

 now discarded them. 



The advantage of the T-super, being in closer touch 

 with the brood-chamber, I find is imaginary. When supers 

 are stacked up, then, of course, a pile of T's is a little lower 

 by s inch per super as against wide frame supers, or by 

 5-16 inch as against other styles. I consider this differ- 

 ence so insignificant as to be all out of proportion to the 

 advantages the other supers possess. Before speaking of 

 these advantages of other supers, especially of the wide- 

 frame super, allow me to repeat again wherein the T-super 

 has greatly troubled me : 



1. " With the amount of propolis gathered here, it is 

 often an impossibility to remove the filled boxes from the 

 surrounding case without injury to the honey." A T-super 

 might be so constructed as to remove this difficulty by key- 

 ing up the sections on all four sides, if otherwise there were 

 merit enough in the contrivance ; but as there are other 

 bad features enough to condemn it, I would not want to go 

 to all that trouble. 



2. " It is my experience that sections do not fold square. ' ' 

 Sometimes only a part in a crate are faulty in this respect. 



Sometimes the whole lot is so bad, some folding diamond 

 shape, that when placed in a T-super one corner of each 

 section bobs up. There seems to be no way to keep it 

 down. The springs at the side of the super do not exert 

 pressure enough to hold it in place when pushed down. A 

 wedge does not do it. A screw, or, rather, 5 screws to each 

 super, where 4 sections are in a row, might do it. I don't 

 know. These naughty sections give me no trouble with my 

 wide- frame supers. 



3. A most serious drawback to the T-super lies in the 

 fact that it must be handled very carefully before having 

 been on the hives. It can not be set down anywhere in the 

 apiary like other supers, or it becomes disarranged. Noth- 

 ing has tried my patience more than this bad feature of the 

 T. Being accustomed to drop my wide-frame supers any- 

 where on the grouud when at work among the bees, I have 

 had many an accident happen of this kind with the T's. It 

 requires a lot of time to get a T-super back in shape. The 

 sections have a way of catching on the tins at the bottom, 

 and no way of getting at them easily ; the wooden strips 

 between the tops of sections require a world of patience to 

 replace when hurrying the work. Well, in brief, deliver me 

 from the T's. 



4. An illustration I gave some time ago shows how 

 badly sections become soiled here when not protected by a 

 full wide frame, and I need scarcely say any more on this 

 point. However, it is claimed by Dr. Miller, that the bees 

 have a naughty way of crowding in propolis between the 

 top-bars and tops of sections, which fact can not be denied. 

 The bees here are as guilty of this as are the bees in Illi- 

 nois. When sections are taken out of wide frames they 

 often are encumbered with little ridges of the sticky or 

 brittle substance — according to the season of the year and 

 the temperature— along their edges, particularly on the 

 tops. The question now arises, which is more difficult, to 

 remove these ridges, or to clean, scrape and sandpaper 

 both top and bottom of each honey-box ? Any one need 

 not be familiar with this work, but he can tell at a glance, 

 that 10 sections from a wide-frame super can be made pre- 

 sentable in less time than one can out of a T-super here in 

 New York State. The matter must be different in Illinois, 

 or as good and fair-minded a man as Dr. Miller could not 

 possibly defend the T-super. Why, this feature alone is 

 sufficient to decide the matter in favor of wide frames. 



With the above we have now come to the advantages 

 of the wide-frame super. In the first place I repeat, the 

 frame protects the section ; not Only keeps it clean, but also 

 keeps it in shape. The sagging of the bottom-bars, which 

 sometimes occurs, is of little moment, and with a 5-16-inch 

 bottom-bar would be insignificant. It could be wholly pre- 

 vented by using the sections crosswise of the hive, placing 

 but 3 sections into each frame. I imagine Mr. Doolittle 

 uses them in this fashion. In the Betsinger super, each 

 wide frame has a follower and tightening screw at the end, 

 thus making everything most rigid. This tightening screw 

 has the other advantage of counteracting inaccuracy of 

 workmanship. I find sections vary in size. Even when 

 bought of the same manufacturers each year, the output of 

 one year is not exactly like that of the next. One year the 

 sections may just fill the frame to a nicety ; another year 

 they go in loosely. In this last case, bottom-bars are more 

 apt to sag than when the 4 sections are a perfect fit. Two 

 years ago I bought sections, and found they measured 1-16 

 inch more to the 4 than they should have done. They were 

 standard goods, 4x5x1';:. I had a lot of trouble with them. 

 The follower and tightening screw would have saved me a 

 world of trouble and vexation. In speaking of these little 

 imperfections of sections, I do not mean to find serious 

 fault with the manufacturers. I am not sure but what it is 

 a practical impossibility to make one-piece sections so ex- 

 act that 4 sections placed side and side measure 16 inches 

 to a hair ; I only mention this to show what the conditions 

 are under which we labor, and how we can best remedy ex- 

 isting evils. 



Returning now to the wide-frame super, I wish to add 

 that it is a most convenient fixture in the shop as well as in 

 the yard. One can hardly disarrange it, and if, by chance, 

 it should have become so, order is very easily restored. 



In a poor season, when bees need but one super per 

 hive, a little more room can easily be given by removing 4, 

 8, or 12 sections from a super while on the hive, and replac- 

 ing with that many empty ones. The advantage is, the 

 sections are handled in 4's, and can be handled very roughly 

 and quickly. It is a practical impossibility to remove full 



