92 
A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
mar the super and not start the sections so easily. It is 
important to bear down upon the super while striking. 
The above is for the late work when all supers are to be 
emptied. You will remember that the first supers that were 
taken off had the unfinished sections put back on the hives 
to be finished. I will now explain how this was done. 
The sections may all be taken out of the supers, or the 
finished ones may be left in the super till later, merely taking 
out the unfinished ones. To accomplish this latter, blocks 
must be put in the bottom of the hive-cover — I mean the 
inside bottom as it lies ready for use— so that the super 
cannot fall clear down, but will fall upon the blocks and then 
be only so far down that or % inch of the sections are still 
in the super. The unfinished sections can now be picked off 
the sides, for they will always be found in that part of the 
super. Then I lay a board about the same size as a bearing- 
board upon the sections, and hold this board down with my 
chin, while I raise the super by the hand-holes at each end. 
As soon as it is raised enough for the thumbs to reach on the 
top of the board while the fingers still remain in the hand- 
holes, I relieve the chin from further duty, and raise the 
super up till the sections are fully in place, holding the board 
down by pressing with the thumbs. The super is then piled 
up till the regular time for taking out all. 
It is well to have two or more bearing-boards so that they 
can be taken directly to the scrapers, and the one who takes 
out, can be taking out on one board while the scraper is 
emptying another. One bearing-board can be made to do, 
by having several plain boards of the same size or a little 
larger. Lay a plain board on the table and the bearing-board 
full of sections beside it, letting the projecting half-inch of 
the thin boards of the bearing-board rest on the edge of the 
plain board. Now slide the sections in a body from one 
board to the other. 
