PIFTT YEAKS AMONG THE BEES 201 



KEEPING TALLY OF SECTIONS. 



The number of the colony from which each super is taken 

 is marked in pencil on one of tte middle sections, perhaps 

 when the super is first taken from the hive, certainly before it 

 is taken from the hive entirely. A board or a slip of paper is 

 kept where the supers are piled, and as each super is taken to 

 the pile the number of the hive and the number of sections in 

 the super are taken. Occasionally the number of supers in the 

 pile is counted, so as to see whether it tallies with the number 

 taken on the memorandum, for without this there is danger 

 that some super might be forgotten, and the colony not have 

 proper credit. When convenient, possibly while we sit rest- 

 ing a little while after the supers are all piled, possibly not till 

 the next morning, the numbers on the memorandum are used 

 to give each colony its proper credit in the record book. 



CREDITING COLONIES. 



The credit to each colony is entered over the first line that 

 belongs to that colony, so that it may easily be seen at a glance, 

 and so that it may be convenient to have all the credit on one 

 spot. If a super containing 34 sections is taken from a colony, 

 the number 24 is entered over its first Une. Then when another 

 24 sections is taken from that colony, +24 is written after the 

 first 24, and whatever number is taken each time, that num- 

 ber is put down with the plus sign preceding. Sometimes it 

 happens that a super partly filled is taken from one hive and 

 put on another. Suppose it is estimated that the super con- 

 tains the equivalent of 7 sections, and that it is taken from No. 

 21 and given to No. 45. At No. 21 will be entered +7, and 

 at No. 45 wUl be entered — 7. At the- end of the season the 

 whole will be .summed up. In an extra-good year, an average 

 colony may have some such account as this: 24+48+48 — 7+16 

 +24 equals 153. But the minus sign very seldom occurs. 



WHEELING SUPERS IN. 



At the home apiary, the piles of supers are generally left 

 till nightfall, so the bees will have abundance of time to be 



