THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



26S 



er the hive. In order that the pin may 

 not be lost it is tied to the end of a 

 string- fastened to one of the levers. It 

 will also be possible to use this device 

 when putting queen-excluders in place. 

 There is no lifting of the hives, and it 

 is actually fun to put on bee escapes 

 b3' the use of these levers. If the 

 weather is warm, and the propolis 

 soft, the levers alone can be depended 

 upon to loosen the hive, but, if the 

 weather is cool, the hive better be 

 loosened first with a screw driver. 

 First raise the hive just a little crack, 

 not quite enough to let out the bees, 

 then drive smoke into this crack, 

 and the}- will be out of the way when 

 the hive is raised. 



THE ADVANTAGE OF USING BEE 

 ESCAPES. 



In some of his articles Mr. R. F. 

 Holterraann said that for years he had 

 alwaj's dreaded to have extracting- 

 time come, and, as it is usually man- 

 aged I don't wonder at it. The hard- 

 est, most disagreeable part of the work 

 is getting- the bees off the combs. At 

 best, it is unpleasant for both the bees 

 and the operator. The weather is 

 almost alwa3's hot, and the smoking 

 and brushing, especially the latter, 

 make the bees cross, and bet>veen the 

 heat and the stings and the mussy 

 character of the work, the poor bee- 

 keeper has anything but a good time. 

 It is not so bad when honej' is coming 

 in, but there is always some of this 

 work to be done at the close of the 

 season, when there is robbing to 

 contend with. The use of the bee- 

 escapes cuts out all of these unpleasant 

 features. Instead of several men work- 

 ing all day in a sort of mild torment 

 (and sometimes it isn't so very mild) 

 to get the bees off 5,000 pounds of 

 honey, one man can put on the bee- 

 escapes in half a day, and really enjoy 

 the work, if he has some such arrange- 

 ment as I have described. In two or 

 three days, at the ou:side, practically 

 every bee will be out of the supers, and 



all that is necessary is simply to lift 

 them off and wheel them into the honey 

 house. It will not be necessary to even 

 use any smoke in doing this, although 

 it will be needed in removing the 

 escape-boards. Don't you see how 

 those two things, plenty of combs and 

 the use of bee escapes, can change the 

 whole aspect of extracted honey pro- 

 duction ? They <,;o; away entirely with 

 the rush and hurly burly of hur- 

 ried extracting in bat weather. 



HEATING UP HONKV TO EXTRACT IT. 



Right here I expect that some one 

 will say "How about extracting the 

 honey ? Won't it be too cool after' the 

 bees have been off it so long ? Yes, it 

 will; and will have to be warmed up 

 before it can be extracted. Have a par- 

 tition across the honej' house; store the 

 honey one side of the partition, and 

 have the extractor the other side. 

 Have a small hard-coal stove in the 

 side where the honey is -stored. Start 

 a slow fire in there a few hours before 

 the extracting is to begin. Don't ex- 

 pect that the hone}' will warm up in an 

 hour or two It will require several 

 hours. Better start the fire the evening 

 before, then it will be all ready to ex- 

 tract the next morning. If the honey 

 house is at an out-apiary, let the man 

 who is to extract (or the men, as the 

 case may be) go to the apiary the even- 

 ing before and build the fire, and sleep 

 at the apiary all night. Every honey- 

 house at an out-apiarj^ should have a 

 cupboard, with some dishes, some oil 

 stoves, and a bunk. Of course, it is 

 not necessary to have the honey-house 

 partitioned off, but it makes pretty 

 warm work to extract in the same 

 temperature as that needed to warm up 

 the honey— about 95 degrees. A small, 

 second-hand, base-burning coal stove 

 can usually be bought for a few dol- 

 lars, and 25 cts worth of coal will 

 warm up 5,000 pounds of honey. A 

 hive or two at a time can be brought 

 out from the warm room, and will not 

 cool before it is extracted, while the 



