V)04 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



487 



the flying- at the entrances (for it was in 

 the height of the honey-flow) ihat this row 

 of colonies was doing much more work than 

 the rows on either side of it that had com- 

 mon stock. The old adag-e that blood will 

 tell generally applies, although there will 

 be marked "exceptions that will prove the 

 rule."— Ed.] 



FILLED SECTIONS WITHOUT POP-HOLES. 



How to Prevent Full Sheets of Foundation from Kink- 

 ing or Buckling when Sections are Placed in 

 the Super. 



BY G. J. VODER. 



In apiculture no other part has been more 

 experimented on than that of g^etting sec- 

 tions well filled. From the earliest use of 

 sections it was necessary to have a guide 

 or starter to insure straight work; and be- 

 fore the advent of comb foundation I had a 

 few colonies to build new comb to make 

 starters of for sections, varying from one 

 inch square to (in length) the width of the 

 section, and one inch wide. Upon the ad- 

 vent of surplus foundation there were ob- 

 jections on account of too much wax with 

 the honey, especially when large starters 

 were used. This, however, was soon over- 

 come by the thin and extra thin, and at 

 present many are yet using only the top 

 three cornered starter, while some are also 



using narrow bottom starters to insure the 

 honey being- built well down. 



This is a good feature, as a section even 

 well filled to within half an inch of the bot- 

 tom of the section lacks in weight, strength, 

 and general appearance. The time has 

 come when nearly every large comb-honey 

 producer agrees that it is necessary to use 

 full sheets of foundation in order to gain the 

 best results; and right here is where many 

 a blunder is made, not fastening the foun- 

 dation right to the upper side of the section, 

 leaving it bearing against one side of the 

 section; then when it is placed in the super 

 it kinks over, thus giving poorer results than 

 if a smaller starter had been used. 



Many of the foundation-fastening ma- 

 chines, if rightly managed, do splendid 

 work in a single section way; but it is nec- 

 essary to cut the foundation a little narrow- 

 er than the inside of the section, so as to 

 hang clear; but to insure the least amount 

 of pop-holes it is best also to fasten the 

 foundation to the side of the section. This 

 has been mentioned in Glkanings as not 

 being practical; yet we have succeeded so 

 well with a few thousand sections, and the 

 results were so favorable, that we are con- 

 vinced that we have overcome the difficulties 

 heretofore mentioned. Here is our way of 

 doing: 



Cut a board the width of the height of the 

 inside of the section you wish to use, and 

 four inches longer than the width of four 



voder's apparatus for putting in snug-fit sheets of foundation. 



