A2 



TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



upper story find themselves shut off 

 from the entrance they seek a place 

 of exit. 



By next morning- they are down into 

 the brood chamber and the supers are 

 free of bees and ready to be taken off. 

 "We have found that on cool nights bees 

 go down better than on warm nights 

 as they seek the cluster for warmth. 

 However, if it is very cool and the 

 temperature hovers around the freez- 

 ing point, the bees will not go down 

 very well and very often a small bunch 

 will cluster in the upper super for 

 warmth. 



, That the supers should be bee tight 

 is a very important item. Just as soon 

 as the escape board is in place and the 

 bees start down, the supers are left 

 practically without any defense and the 

 robbers are not slow to discover this 

 and make merry with the stores they 

 find so easily. 



The time it * requires to put on 

 escapes is froni one to two minutes per 

 hive, depending on how tight the super 

 sticks to the hive and just how good 

 a joint the super makes with the 

 escape. With u there is an over 

 abundance of propolis, and the lower 

 edge of the super is well gummed up. 

 If the weather is warm the propolis 

 mashes out of the way, but if the 

 weather is cool it sometimes forms 

 lumps and holds the super up from 

 the board high enough to allow a bee 

 to pass under. 



Before we used the Ijee-escapes in 

 our apiaries we were always sure to 

 have several bad cases of robbing at 

 extracting time. Since we have 

 adopted their use, it is a very uncom- 

 mon thing to have a single colony in 

 danger at any time and the honey 

 house is not so heavily besieged by 

 robbers. Nearly every bee-keeper 

 realizes what a bad case of robbing 

 means and dozens of anti-robbing de- 

 vices have been invented with more 

 or less success. The best safeguard is 

 to nip it in the bud and prevent any 

 bee from securing stolen sweets. 



When the escape is put under several 

 supers in one tier the bees are a little 

 slower to vacate them than when put 

 under but one super. Very often, 

 however, we have put them under four 

 and five supers (shallow supers) and 

 have had the bees go down in twelve 

 to eighteen hours. Usually the bee- 

 escapes are put on all the hives at one 



time and the single supers removed 

 first, leaving the higher tiers for the 

 last, so as to give ample time for the 

 bees to descend. Otcasionally a colony 

 refuses to leave the supers — several 

 things may be responsible for this. 



Brood in the supers is certain to keep 

 the bees above as they always protect 

 their brood and keep it warm. The 

 presence of a queen in the super will 

 always prevent their descending. A 

 hole in the bee-escape board, allowing 

 the bees to pass back and forth, de- 

 stroys the value of the escape. This 

 objection may seem unnecessary but it 

 is not uncommon for the escape board 

 to either have a small knot hole or a 

 crack caused by the shrinkage of the 

 wood. A particle of comb, a dead bee, 

 a cobweb, or a straw in the escape 

 spring renders the escape ineffective. 



Another objection to the escapes 

 raised by many bee-keepers is that in 

 cold weather the honey becomes stiff 

 as soon as the bees have left the 

 supers, making extracting a much 

 harder job. To my notion it is pref- 

 erable to handle heavy honey than to 

 have to brush bees that are numb and 

 fly just far enough to light and crawl 

 over the bee-keeper. 



These drawbacks are usually very 

 easily overcome. When queen exclud- 

 ers are used there is never any fear 

 with either the queen or brood above. 

 With a little care, the escape board can 

 be made bee tight and the springs kept 

 free of obstruction. 



When the escape is used there is no 

 need of handling the frames in the 

 apiary as this is all done in the honey 

 house. 



When the escapes are first put on, 

 the lower super is pried loose and if 

 there is any dripping honey it drips on 

 ■the escape board and is all licked up 

 clean by morning, or by the time the 

 supers are ready to be taken off. 



I am unable to give any information 

 in regard to using bee-escapes for the 

 production of comb honey as our ex- 

 perience has been with extracted honey 

 exclusively. However, it seems to me 

 that they would be even more indis- 

 pensable to the comb honey producer 

 than to the bee-keeper who runs for 

 extracted honey alone. 



Pres. Dadant — This subject is now 

 open for discussion. 



L. r. Dadant — I would like to hear 

 from Mr. France on that subject; last 



