80 



MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 



FIG. 50. One-piece V -grooved sections. (From (ilean 

 ings.) 



guides, should be in readiness before the opening of the harvest. Forty 

 to fifty sections for each hive should be prepared. One-piece sections, if 

 bought in the flat, should be placed in the cellar for two or three days 

 before folding. If the section back of the V-joints is then moistened 

 slightly they can be set up rapidly without breakage. Sections made 



of Avhite poplar are by far the 

 neatest looking and do not cost 

 much if any more than bass- 

 wood, so that bee keepers 

 might show their disapproval 

 of the wholesale destruction of 

 our basswood or linden timber 

 by resolutely refusing to buy 

 sections made of that wood. 

 The four-piece sections, if well 

 made, are preferable to the one- 

 piece. The latter do not keep 

 their shape as firmly as the 

 four -piece sections, which are made with lock joints at all the corners. 

 The foundation for sections should be the quality known as " thin sur- 

 plus,' 7 or, preferably, if full sheets be used, "extra thin surplus." These 

 grades are made of selected, light-colored wax, and 1 pound furnishes 

 full sheets for 100 to 125 standard sections (4J by 4 inches). The 

 sheets should be cut no larger than 3f inches square. These will take 

 up about three-sixteenths of an inch in fastening, which will leave nearly 

 one-half inch space between 

 the lower edge and the bot- 

 tom piece of the section and 

 allow the foundation to stretch 

 while being drawn out. This 

 is necessary, otherwise the 

 partially completed comb will 

 bulge as soon as it reaches 

 the bottom of the section. In 

 cutting foundation either for 

 sections or frames one edge 

 the one to be attached 

 should be perfectly straight- 

 To secure this not more than 

 six to ten sheets (depending 

 on their thickness) should be laid in one pile, and a sharp, thin-bladed 

 knife, as well as a straight rule, used. Two or three piles may be laid 

 side by side and with a rule long enough to reach across them all a 

 dozen to thirty sheets can be cut at a time. Dipping the knife in warm 

 water facilitates the work. 



The sheets are fastened in the section by the use of one of the 

 machines mentioned on page 52. They secure the wax to the wood by 



FIG. 57 Super with sections and section holders in place: 

 A, super; D, separator; !<, sections; F, follower; G, 

 wedge. (From Gleanings.) 



