130 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



If we could only have ventilation at the center, where sealing 

 is first done, instead of at the ends where the last sealing is 

 done! Well, why not at the center? In 1912 I tried it, mak- 

 ing a ventilation-cover. Here is the bill of material for it: 2 

 pieces 20 x 4% x % ; 2 pieces 4 x 4% x % ; 2 pieces 13% x % x 

 % ; 2 pieces 7 x % x %• 



At each side will be one of the 20-inch pieces, and between 

 them, one at each end, the 4-inch pieces. These will be nailed 

 upon the ISyg pieces, one at each end, and the 7-ineh pieces 

 will come at the inside ends of the 4-inch pieces. We now have 

 a cover with a central opening 12x4% inches. This is laid 

 upon the super with the %-inch square pieces uppermost, and 

 on this is placed the usual cover. If desired, this ventilation- 

 cover can be lightly nailed to the hive-cover, to be removed at 

 the close of the super-season. These ventilation-covers have 

 not been thoroughly tested, but give promise of being an ac- 

 quisition. 



SUPER SPBINGS. 



Until the introduction of super springs, my supers of 

 sections were wedged together by crowding in behind the fol- 

 lower a straight stick about as long as the inside length of the 

 super, and % x % inch. I find the super springs a very great 

 improvement. When the sections are filled into the super, the 

 comers, which have been wet, are not yet entirely dry, and no 

 matter how tightly wedged, as they dry out there will be 

 shrinkage of the contents of the super, so that in some cases 

 the wedge-stick will drop down. The metal springs will adjust 

 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, being 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 spring forms no such pocket. 



