" 26 SUPERING. 



will, in spite of anything the bee-keeper can do to prevent it. 

 To hit on the proper time for supering, the hive should be 

 looked at every two or three days, until the bees build little 

 bits of white-looking comb about the edges of the top bars, 

 and then additional room should be given on the morning 

 of the next day, if fine. If the hive is not less than twenty 

 inches long inside, sections may be very conveniently placed 

 in the body of the hive, as shown in Fig. lo, which represents 



Fig. 10. — Section Frame with six lib. Sections. 

 a section frame holding six one-pound sections. Between the 

 brood frames and the one containing the sections, a dia- 

 phragm of zinc, having perforations exactly -^ of an inch wide, 

 is hung. This is called a queen excluder, and its object is 

 to keep the queen out of the sections, lest she would deposit 

 eggs in them, and spoil them for sale. The worker bees are 

 able to pass freely through openings of this width, but the 

 queen, having a larger body, cannot, and hence the name 

 of excluder. Although bees work more constantly during 

 unsettled weather in sections placed in frames than when 

 placed in crates over the frames, the comb is more rapidly 

 sealed over in the latter, which is the arrangement generally 

 adopted. To the beginner, placing supers in position seems 

 a very difficult operation, but by attending to the following 

 instructions, it can be performed with the greatest ease and 

 certainty. The first thing is to remove the top layers of the 

 quilt, and to place the section crate on the first layer, in 

 order to find out whether it is large enough to completely 

 cover the frames, so that neither bees nor heat can pass out. 

 If it is, all is well ; but if not, as is sometimes the case when 

 the hive and super are not supplied by the same maker, slips 



