140 AUSTRALASIAN 



a rack filled with prize-sections, that was at one time thought 

 a great deal of in America. The rack and case system for 

 sections has been adopted by a great many bee-keepers in the 

 United States, but there are a few leading men who still 

 adhere to the frames. Some five years ago I gave the above 

 kind of rack a fair trial through one season. At that time I 

 was raising large quantities of comb-honey by the frame 

 method. I soon discarded the racks, and have never used 

 them since. The objections I had to them were : — 1st. I could 

 not tier them up, a fatal objection, in my opinion, ' to any 

 system for raising comb-honey. 2nd. The trouble and expense 

 of blocking up the outside sections with glass or wood to pre- 

 vent bees getting out. 3rd. When removing some of the 

 boxes the bees would crowd outside, and so get in the way 

 when the cover was to be put on ; and 4th. I could not 

 examine one of the central boxes without disturbing nearly all 

 the others. 



THE HEDDON SECTION CASE. 



Improvements are continually being made in racks as well 

 as other appliances connected with bee-culture, consequently 



Fig. 61.— THE HEDDON SECTION CASE. 



there are more convenient ones in use now, but no rack, in my 

 opinion, is equal to the Heddon case for sections (Fig. 61). It 

 is much easier to make than a rack, and to my mind very much 

 handier to use. It will be seen by the engraving that the case 

 is very similar to the body of a half-story hive, divided by 

 partitions crosswise into four compartments, each wide enough 

 to take a one-pound section box. Mr. Heddon, who has raised 

 comb-honey on an extensive scale, was, as he says, " one of the 

 pioneer opposers of wide frames and separators," but having 

 been persuaded to give them another trial, he says : — 



"I did so by making 350 wide frame supers (one story or tier of 

 sections, high), and used these side by side and over and under 300 of 



