Manual of the apiary

by Albert John Cook

REQUISITES OF GOOD SECTIONS

The wood should be white, the size small, from four to six inches square, the sections capable of being glassed, at least on the faces, not too much cut off from brood-chamber, cheap, easily made, and so arranged as to be put on or taken off the hive en masse.

Fig. 44.

DESCRIPTION.

The style of section which I think will soon replace all others, is easily made, as follows: For a section four inches square take a strip of clean, white veneer—cut from basswood, poplar or white-wood—such as is used to make berry-boxes, two inches wide and twenty inches long; for larger sections make it proportionally longer. Make a shallow cut every four inches at right-angles to the sides—though they will do this, if asked to, at the factory. Now with a chisel ([Fig, 44]) four inches long, with one-eighth inch projections at right-angles to the main blade, cut out sections on the opposite edges of the main strip—which will leave openings one-eighth inch by four inches, between the first and second shallow cut and the third and fourth. We now bend this around a square block ([Fig, 45]) which will just fill it, letting the ends over-lap, and drive through these over-lapping sections one or two small wrought brads on to an iron, ([Fig, 45, b]) set into the block, by which they will be clinched. Or, by using glue, we may dispense with the block. Now, if your market requires glassed sections, or if you wish to insert dividers, either tin or wood, glue posts one-fourth of an inch square, four in each section along the uncut sides one-eighth inch from the edges. The ends of these will just come flush with the gouged edges above and below. Now, by use of tins such as are used to fasten window-glass, these can be glassed, or if desired, each one can receive a tin or wooden separator.

Fig. 45.

If this gluing in of the pieces is thought too troublesome, we may still achieve the same end by using tin separators in our crates, and then glass our sections by cutting a square glass, just the size of the section, outside measure, and with heavy white paper paste two of these glass to the sections. This makes each section perfectly close, and is the method devised by Southard and Ranney for practice the coming season. A paste made of dextrine, tragacanth, or even flour, will answer to fasten the strips of paper, which need not be more than one inch wide. A little carbolic acid, or salicylic acid in solution, will keep the paste from souring.

Every apiarist can make these sections for himself, and thus save freight and profits of making. They are neat, very cheap—costing but two mills each—and are made strong by use of the glued posts. They are also light. Very soon our customers will object to buying wood and glass, if our unglassed sections of comb-honey are kept in close glassed crates.