ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



115 



holder. I then place half of each of 

 tJhe four sections in the bottom of the 

 form; having done this, I place a full 

 sheet of foundation in the form on 

 the four half-sections. This founda- 

 tion is made to order, 5 by 17 inches, 

 extra thin, then the last half of each 

 section is placed on, pressing the 

 foundation in firm between each sec- 

 tion. It is then ready for the super. 

 By the time seven section-holders 

 are placed in the super, and wedged 

 tight together, the foundation is just 

 about cut through by the half-sec- 

 tions. 



I find that by furnishing the bees 

 with plenty of this kind of sections, 

 that it helps wonderfully to reauce 

 the number of swarms. 



By the time these sections are taken 

 off the bees, the greater part of them 

 are filled even, and without pop-holes, 

 whidh grades No. 1 honey. When I 

 make an exhibit of comb honey at the 

 Illinois State Fair I can put -up 500 

 sections that are filled perfectly, with- 

 out one pop-hole. 



Now every one may not have the 

 same experience, nor success, with 

 the ".split- section" that I do, although 

 it does not require a great amount of 

 skilled labor to put the foundation in 

 these sections and prepare them ready 

 for the bees to store honey in. 



Lots of bee-keepers are careless; 

 some give the bees sections to fill he- 

 fore there is any honey in the field to 

 gather. 



By putting the sections on early, 

 you will soon find any amount of holes 

 that the bees have cut in the founda- 

 tion. Now this is all unnecessary; if 

 the bee-keepers would only put the 

 sections on at the right time this 

 would never occur. 



I am sending a section of my honey 

 and the foundation fastener with the 

 "Split Section" and foundation, so you 

 may see how simply it is all done. 



A. COPPIN. 

 Wenona, 111. 



Pres. York — How many have used 

 the split section? Mr. Wheeler has, I 

 know. Are there any othres? (Two.) 

 How do you like it. Miss Candler? 



Miss Candler — I didn't like it very 

 well; I think in a good flow it would 

 work nicely. My bees didn't work the 

 honey out so evenly around the wood 

 as that sample is. The foundation is 

 apt to show around the wood, and in 



the corners; probably the honey- flow 

 has something to do with that. I 

 could not make it come out square — the 

 two parts. They would break through 

 in the middle because they were not 

 square. The least pressure that was 

 put on them — they would come apart. 

 Of course I didn't have any contrivance 

 like that to square them. 



Mr. Reynolds — What do you say 

 about that? I have never had sections 

 fill out as well as in split sections. I 

 think they are better than the ordinary 

 section. 



Mr. Macklin — Do you use fences with 

 them? 



Mr. Reynolds — No, sir, I use separa- 

 tors. 



Mr. Macklin — Just plain separators? 



Mr. Rej'nolds — Yes. 



Pres. York — Mr. Wheeler has had 



long experience with them, or used 



to have. Have you anything to sayf 



for or against? 



Mr. Wheeler — I don't think so; it is 

 a toss up with me. There are some 

 things about them that are favorable, 

 and some that are unfavorable I dorf t 

 use them myself any more. I used to. 

 My daughters filled the sections with 

 foundation, and they decided they 

 didn't like it; that is one reason I don't 

 use them. Another thing is as Miss 

 Candler spoke of — the bees never put 

 the honey to the edge of the wood, that 

 is, as a rule; you can pick out nice 

 sections, and some swarms seem to 

 build out and others do not. If your 

 foundation happened to be on durinrg 

 a dearth there would be holes made 

 through them. I don't think 'they are 

 very satisfactory. 



If you get the section filled out full, 

 it is not exactly true and square when 

 you press them in the shipping- case; 

 you will press one of the halves a little 

 bit and make it come down square with 

 the others, and that will crack the 

 honey and start it to leaking. There 

 are a lot of things like that about them. 

 They are nice in theory. I thought it 

 v/as my own idea; I wonder if Mr. Cop- 

 pon got anything of the kind from me. 

 I might have sent my honey somewhere 

 v/here he saw it, or I might have seen 

 his at 'the time I thought I invented it; 

 I didn't know of any one else in the 

 country using it. 



Pres. York — Have you any objection 

 to the foundation showing between the 

 halves of the section? 



