Page:How to Keep Bees.djvu/120

90 strip at just the middle line of the upper bar of the section. The objection to filling a section with a complete sheet is, first, the expense of the foundation; and, secondly, that it is likely to give a tough central portion or "fish-bone" to the comb-honey. (Plate XIV.)

HOW TO PREPARE THE SUPER

If they are not ordered set up ready for use, the supers come in flat pieces with dovetailed ends, and putting them together is a pleasing occupation, after one has learned how. The best way to learn how is to carefully observe a super already properly set up; for, though the directions for putting these together are as plain as may be, yet a person may err therein and yet not be a fool. Unless one has learned, or can learn, to drive a nail, one had best not undertake bee-keeping, for the bee-keeper must become a carpenter to be successful; it adds much to the interest of the occupation to make all sorts of things for one's own bees. The principle on which the super is built is that it may hold the sections tightly in place, and not allow them to drop through. Therefore, at the bottom of the super, along each narrower end, is a tin strip to support the ends of the section-holders; to keep the ends of the section-holders even a wedge-shaped strip of wood is nailed across the end of the super, thick edge down and flush with the bottom edge, resting against the tin strips. We use the Hetherington super-springs, one at each end and one at the middle of one side of the super; the trick of putting these in is to set