Fig. 49.
Captain Hetherington tells me that Mr. Quinby used them years ago. The tin arrangement, though unlike Mr. Wheeler's ([Fig, 52, M]), would be readily suggested by it. It is more trouble to make these frames if we have the tins set in so as just to come flush with the edge of the end-bars of the frames, but then the frames would hang close together, and would not be so stuck together with propolis. These may be hung in the second story of a two-story hive, and just so many as to fill the same—my hives will take nine—or they can be put below, beside the brood-combs. Mr. Doolittle, in case he hangs these below, inserts a perforated division-board, so that the queen will not enter the sections and lay eggs. I used them very successfully last summer without division-boards, and neither brood nor pollen were placed in a single cell. Perhaps wider tins would prevent this should it occur. In long hives—the "New Idea"—which I find very satisfactory, after several years' trial, especially for extracted honey—I have used these frames of sections, and with the best success. The Italians entered them at once, and filled them even more quickly than other bees filled the sections in the upper story. In fact, one great advantage of these sections in the frames is the Obvious and ample passage-ways, inviting the bees to enter them. But in our desire to make ample and inviting openings, caution is required that we do not over-do the matter, and invite the queen to injurious intrusion. So we have Charybdis and Scylla, and must, by study, learn to so steer between, as to avoid both dangers.
Fig. 50.
SECTIONS IN RACKS.
These are to use in lieu of large frames, to hold sections, and are very convenient when we wish to set the sections only one deep above the brood-chamber. Though, if desired, we can place one rack above another, and so have sections two, and even three deep.
Fig. 51.
Fig. 52.