264 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



being repeated two or three weeks later. I suppose I should 

 r.ow prefer bisulphide of carbon to sulphur for fumigation, 

 but for several j'ears I have not found it necessary to fumi- 

 gate. Formerly the larvas of the bee moth would make bad 

 work if fumigation were omitted, and sometimes in spite of 

 it, but now there is no trouble. I don't know what makes the 

 difference, unless it be that formerly there was so large a per 

 cent of black blood in my bees. 



When the time does come for taking the sections all out 

 of the supers, the work is gone at in earnest and continued 

 until all the marketable sections are in their shipping-cases 

 ready for market. It will be understood that all supers taken 

 off before the last have been handled as heretofore mentioned, 

 the marketable sections having all been piled up in the honey- 

 room and the others returned as ''go-backs," and the last lot 

 taken off will consist of every sort, from foundation un- 

 touched by the bees up to sections entirely filled and sealed. 



SORTING THE SECTIONS. 



Philo sorts the sections into four classes as he takes them 

 out, although some supers are assigned to one class or another 

 without being taken out, because all in the super are of one 

 kind. One lot consists of dry sections, or those in which th« 

 foundation either has not been touched by the bees, or else has 

 been drawn out so little that not a drop of honey has been put 

 in it. These are put in a pile by themselves. 



FEEDER SECTIONS. 



The second lot consists of those which have just a few 

 drops of honey in them, up to those which are not more than 

 half filled. Some entire supers will be assigned to the first or 

 second lot without being taken out of the super at all. "When 

 a super feels pretty light, it is inspected with some care by 

 looking through it from the imder side. If it is found that 

 there is no honey in any section in the super, it goes to the 

 dry pile without any taking out. If there is honey in the 

 super, but no section in it more than half filled, it goes to the 

 second pile without being emptied, even if there is only one 



