122 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



themselves to this, and continue to press the sections together, 

 although with less force, after all have entirely dried out. It is 

 easier to put the springs in, and very much easier to take them 

 out. In a word, the sticks are not always a fit, and the springs 

 are. 



Another thing of perhaps still more importance is that the 

 stick, heing crowded in diagonally, forms a pocket in which the 

 bees are apt to congregate when one is trying to get them out 

 of the super, and it is very hard to dislodge them from this 

 pocket. The springs form no such pocket. 



I am not sure whether it is better to use one spring or two 

 to a super. 



The T tins are not fastened to the super, but loose (Fig. -3) . 



sei:;tioxs ready ix advance. 



The work of getting sections and supers ready for use has 

 been all done long before the time for putting on, and some- 

 thing will be said about how that work is done. 



At the time the su)iei's are needed for putting on the hives, 

 tliey are all nicely piled up in the store-room of the shop, ready 

 lo carry out. 



Years ago I thouiiht 1 was doing pretty well if I had ready 

 in advance as much as 4 supers filled with sections for each 

 colony. Certainly, if I could average, one year with another, 

 (Hi finislied sections per colony, it would not be such a bad thing. 

 But if preparation is to be made in advance, it must be not for 

 an aveiaae crop, but for the largest crop possible. Allowance 

 must he made, too, for unfinished sections that will be taken off 

 at the ilose of the season, and also for a good many that the 

 bees have not begun on at all. Being caught short of sections 

 and having to get them ready right in the rush of harvest made 

 me change my mind as to the number that should be ready in 

 advance. Several times I had to change my mind, each time 

 setting the mark a little higher, for as the years went by the big 

 yields of big years became bigger. One reason for this was no 

 doubt the improvement in pasturage. Another was the impros'e- 

 ment in bees by continuous breeding from the best storers. 



