80 
MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
FlG. 56. — One-piece V-grooved section; 
ings.) 
(From Glean- 
guides, should be in readiness before the opening of the harvest. Forty 
to fifty sections for each hive should be prepared. One-piece sections, if 
bought in the flat, should be placed in the cellar for two or three days 
before folding. If the section back of the V-joints is then moistened 
slightly they can be set up rapidly without breakage. Sections made 
of white poplar are by far the 
neatest looking and do not cost 
much if any more than bass- 
wood, so that bee keepers 
might show their disapproval 
of the wholesale destruction of 
our basswood or linden timber 
by resolutely refusing to buy 
sections made of that wood. 
The four-piece sections, if well 
made, are preferable to the one- 
piece. The latter do not keep 
their shape as firmly as the 
four -piece sections, which are made with lock joints at all the corners. 
The foundation for sections should be the quality known as " thin sur- 
plus/' or, preferably, if full sheets be used, " extra- thin surplus." These 
grades are made of selected, light-colored wax, and 1 pound furnishes 
full sheets for 100 to 125 standard sections (4 J by 4| inches). The 
sheets should be cut no larger than 3f inches square. These will take 
up about three-sixteenths of an inch in fastening, which will leave nearly 
one-half inch space between 
the lower edge and the bot- 
tom piece of the section and 
allowthefoundation to stretch 
while being drawn out. This 
is necessary, otherwise the 
partially completed comb will 
bulge as soon as it reaches 
the bottom of the section. In 
cutting foundation either for 
sections or frames one edge — 
the one to be attached — 
should be perfectly straight- 
To secure this not more than 
six to ten sheets (depending 
on their thickness) should be laid in one pile, and a sharp, thin-bladed 
knife, as well as a straight rule, used. Two or three piles may be laid 
side by side and with a rule long enough to reach across them all a 
dozen to thirty sheets can be cut at a time. Dipping the knife in warm 
water facilitates the work. 
The sheets are fastened in the section by the use of one of the 
machines mentioned on page 52. They secure the wax to the wood by 
Fig. 57.— Super with sections and section holders in place : 
A, super; D, separator; i, sections; F, follower; G, 
wedge. (From Gleanings.) 
