FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 257 



having these " feeders " in the cellar rather than outdoors a re, 

 first, that I want to keep the bees away from them until the 

 whole of them are ready for the attack; second, that in the cel- 

 lar they are safe from the rain. The best of these emptied 

 " feeders " furnish " baits " for the following season. 



TJNMAEKBTABLE SECTIONS. 



The third pile Philo makes consists of those which are more 

 than half filled with honey, but not good enough to be market- 

 able (Fig. 97). This pile is never very large, and is easily 

 gotten rid of at home, together with some help from relatives. 

 Some of it will make as fine appearance as any honey when 

 placed on the table, although the under side on the plate may 

 have too many unsealed and unfilled cells to admit it into the 

 marketable class. There may also be some broken sections, for 

 sections have a fashion of falling with half a chance. 



BEES CLEANING DAUBY SECTIONS. 



Sometimes it happens that a section otherwise good is 

 spoiled, and badly spoiled, in appearance, by having honey 

 from some section above leak all over one or both of its faces. 

 Miss Wilson hit upon a plan for having such sections cleaned 

 up in short order, and with very little trouble. She puts them 

 in a super, puts the super over a colony of bees, and an hour 

 later, if the bees are active, they are taken from the hive as 

 good as new. 



The rest of the sections that do not go into one of these 

 three piles are merchantable sections. That makes four kinds 

 into which Philo sorts them, and you will see that it is possible 

 out of one super to take sections that will go into all four of 

 the piles. Of course there is always standing a super ready for 

 any odd sections of each kind, that is, a super for dry sections, 

 another for " feeders," etc. 



EIRST PART OF CLEANING SECTIONS. 



Having now told how Philo sorts the sections, let me 

 further tell what he does with them. When he comes to a super 



