FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 129 



inch. Lay the piece flat on the edge of the side of the super, 

 and fasten it by 2 nails about % inch from the inside edge of 

 the side of the super. As the wall of the super is ■% thick, that 

 will allow the support to project inside about %, inch, and the 

 support is of course 1 inch wide. Some of the latest of my 

 supers, instead of these squares of sheet iron, have staples as 

 supports. A staple is driven in about % inch from the inside 

 edge, then bent over and hammered down flat. The staples are 

 an inch wide. To support the sections at each end of the super 

 a strip of tin is nailed on. It is 13^ x %, and is nailed on so as 

 to project inward ^4 inch. The 12-ineh T tins are bought ready 

 made. The super is hardly long enough to close the top of the 

 liive. I like this. When the harvest is booming I let the super 

 be shoved forward enough so there will be at the back end 

 a space of % inch for ventilation, which is an important factor 

 to prevent swarming. But the sections near this ventilation 

 will not be finished so rapidly, and at the beginning and toward 

 the close of the season a cleat is nailed on the super to close 

 fully the opening. Yet I remember at least one year when it 

 worked the other way, and the sections were sealed sooner at 

 the open end than at the closed end. Perhaps it was because 

 the weather was very hot. 



The separators used are plain wood, and are generally 

 bought new every year, for it is about as cheap to buy new as 

 to clean the old, and more satisfactory. The usual follower flUs 

 out the super, wedged in with a super-spring, 



TOP VENTILATION OF SUPERS. 



In working for extracted honey it is an easy thing to 

 give a good deal of ventilation to each story, and it works well 

 as a great hindrance to swarming. It makes no great difference 

 if the bees should not seal the combs so well at the openings for 

 ventilation. For years I dreamed of trying to have some way 

 of having the same advantage for comb honey. To be sure, 

 it had worked well enough, at least part of the time, to have a 

 space for ventilation between hive and super at the back end. 

 But to have ventilation between each two supers could hardly 

 fail to make bad work about sealing where the openings came. 



