THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
123 
and in short order, more four-piece sections than 
any of our largest bee-keepers can use. I always 
employ small boys to put my sections together, 
and they like no better fun. 
But the one-piece section is always a frail 
affair, and it is next to impossible to make them 
true. On the contrary, the four-piece, if 
properly made, is much the stronger, and it is 
easily made perfectly true, both in size and 
width. Again, unless the former are securely 
clamped in the super, they will speedily assume 
a diamond shape and become both unsightly 
and difficult to crate. 
Lastly, the white poplar makes the most 
beautiful section. It is a whiter wood and not 
so easily soiled as the basswood. Owing to its 
being a very brittle ff-ood it cannot be made 
into the one-piece sections. It must be made 
either dovetailed or to nail. As the white 
poplar is worth almost nothing for any other 
purpose, and makes the best section by far that 
is made, it is a marvel to me why any bee- 
keeper should use the one-piece section. 
There is another timber, the white gum , 
growing extensively in this country, that makes 
a nicer section than the white poplar, but it is 
more difficult to work. The wood is heavy and 
very fine grained, taking a high polish from a 
properly fitted circular saw. Some of it is 
almost as hard ns white hickory ; but for that 
matter I can make beautiful sections from the 
hardest white h’ekory. Some of the gum trees 
are brash and soft, and 1 am sure can be worked 
as easily as the white poplar. The white gum 
makes the best and nicest shipping crate that is 
made. It holds a nail securely and is less 
inclined to split than the white poplar. 
For years 1 have sought a section or surplus 
arrangement by which as much comb honey 
could be secured as by the use of brood frames 
in the supers. At last 1 can say to bee-keepers, 
I have found it. It is the use of open side 
sectious. At last it can truly be said that no 
loss in comb honey is occasioned by the use of a 
small package, if so constructed as to favor the 
work of the bees. And only’ by providing the 
freest communication to all parts of a section 
super can this be done. Numerous closed par- 
titions in a super are so many barriers to the 
work of the bees, and will evidently result in a 
diminished product. An item of the highest 
importance in the construction of a super is to 
provide free ventilation from end to end and 
side to side. The nectar brought in by the bees 
usually comes with a rush, and it is fully one- 
half water, which must be evaporated. It is 
carried at once to the rapidly-growing combs of 
the sections, and if a draft cannot be easily 
made through all parts of the super the 
ripening of the honey must go on slowly and 
by increased and protracted labor of the bees. 
No wonder they often get discoumged in working 
in the old style of closed side sections, and often 
hesitate to make a start in them. The one 
advantage will many times offset any alleged 
advantage in handling closed side sections. But 
the open side section has numerous other ad- 
vantages over the closed sided. The edges of 
the combs are built out even all around and the 
section is perfectly filled. The closed side 
section is rarely built out square to the uprights 
of the section, even in a good honey flow ; but 
the bees are apt to leave a bee space between the 
uprights and the edge of the combs, except a 
thin attachment in the centre. With the open 
side sections the bees always build the edges of 
the combs straight out to the uprights, and as a 
result put more honey in them than in the same 
sized closed side section. Hence it is then an 
open side section, 4} x 4$ x 1}, will weigh on 
an average as much as a closed side section 
4J x 4{ x 2. Again, with closed side sections, 
it is seldom that the sections at the ends and 
sides of the super are filled out as perfectly as 
the central ones. But the open side sections 
fully and completely overcome this objection. 
The end sections will be filled out as perfectly 
as any others, and no one-sided combs are 
built. 
In a moderate honey flow the bees take the 
central rows of sections first and follow the 
separators, the central end sections being com- 
pleted about the same time that the centre 
sections are ; the sections at the side of the case 
being the last to be completed, the tendency 
being to complete all sections in which work is 
begun. 
After years of experience in Ihe endeavour to 
succeed in obtaining well-built combs in sections 
without separators, I gave it up. and I have 
resorted to every known expedient. I prefer 
wood separators, sawed 1-10 thick, and if made 
as wide as the section is high, they give most 
excellent results. In the use of a section 1J 
wide this requires that the top and bottom bars 
should be only lj} of an inch wide, thus securing 
a passage way j inch wide each side of the 
separators. I also wish the separators perforated 
opposite the openings in the side of the sections. 
For this purpose a J inch augur hole answers 
every need, and is never filled up with brace 
combs. With sections and separators so con- 
structed every section has twelve openings into 
it for the passage of the bees and for allowing 
free ventilation. 
However the super may be constructed other- 
wise, the above points are first essentials, as 
they are requisite to the successful working of 
the bees. In all other respects, a super should 
suit the convenience of the bee-keeper for ease 
and rapidity of operation. For this purpose I 
have found nothing better than wide frames, 
one tier high, probably supported in a case. 
This requires also that the side of the super be 
removable, and retained in place by an adjus- 
table hook at each end of the raise. The most 
practicable device of this kind that I have used 
is the in vent inn 'of Mr. H. D. Cutting. 
That the wide frames may be made light and 
yet not sag with the weight of honey in the 
sections, 1 place a bar or post in the centre of 
each frame so that both the top and bottom 
bars of the frames aid in supporting the sectious. 
So constructed, the top and bottom bars require 
to be only 8-16 thick and 1 j wide. Such frames 
are cheap and afford every desirable facility in 
