420 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 4, 1901. 



I Contributed Articles. 



" Jouncing " Bees Out of Extracting-Supers. 



BY C. DAVENPORT. 



THE editor of the Bee-Keeper's Review, one of the most 

 prominent men in our ranks, has said that freeing- 

 combs from bees is one of the most laborious parts of 

 the work in producing extracted honey. Probably all will 

 agree with him in this, for it is certainly a great deal of 

 work to brush the bees from each comb separately, and for 

 a number of reasons escape-boards are far from being as 

 satisfactory to clear full-depth extracting-stories of bees 

 as they are comb-honey supers. Why this is so I will not 

 take space to explain, for I wish to describe the method I 

 practiced last season, to clear full-depth extracting stories, 

 also comb-honey supers, and what I shall say about this 

 may, in my opinion, be of more practical value to many 

 who are engaged in our pursuit in a large way than the 

 subscription price to this journal would amount to in 25 

 years. 



I feel perfectly free to say this, because the method was 

 not original with me, and I claim no credit whatever for 

 practicing and describing it. Rambler, of California, is 

 the man to whom all honor about this is due. and this mat- 

 ter illustrates not only the value of taking our bee-papers, 

 but also of reading all there is in them. For years I have 

 read those rambles of the Rambler, in many of which 

 there was little said about bees, or anything connected with 

 them, and in some of them he had more to say about girls 

 than about bees — not that I have any objection whatever to 

 reading about girls, (far from it,) but if it was otherwise I 

 should be many times repaid for reading all he wrote. 



If some one was to offer me $50 not to practice this 

 method for 10 years, I would not think of accepting. 



This thing, or method. Rambler called a "jouncer," 

 and having, I trust, given full credit to its inventor, I will 

 describe my method of using his invention. 



Mine is simply a box about 20 inches long, 12 inches 

 wide, and 10 inches high, ends made of lumber 1 inch 

 thick, and the sides of boards 'i-inch thick. That is all 

 there is to it — simply a box without top or bottom. Ram- 

 bler's was better, and made somewhat differently, but mine 

 works well enough. 



The method of using it is to set it down in front of a 

 hive which has a super or extracting story we wish to clear 

 of bees. After taking off the cover and giving the bees a 

 few good, strong puffs of smoke, the upper story is taken 

 off and set down on this jouncer, so it rests across the 

 side pieces, which should not be over ';-inch thick. Now 

 by the cleats or hand-holes at each end, the super is raised 

 up an inch or so, and then suddenly dropped on the thin 

 side-pieces of the jouncer. This is repeated a few times, 

 and the results are surprising. With full-depth extracting- 

 stories a half-bushel or so of bees will be on the ground 

 around the jouncer. 



As I have said, this is set right in front of their hive 

 and the bees soon crawl in. Until one tries it he would not 

 believe the ease and rapidity with which bees can be jarred 

 or jounced out in this way, after one acquires the knack of 

 doing it just right. It takes longer and requires more 

 jouncing to clear a super of comb-honey than it does an 

 extracting super, for many of the bees, when they fall 

 from the combs, strike the bottom of the sections, which 

 prevents them from falling out. With extracting-combs 

 there is nothing to prevent their falling out on the ground. 

 But most of the bees in the sections can be jarred out in 

 this way more easily, in my opinion, than the supers can be 

 cleared by escape-boards. Besides, what I regard as a 

 great advantage of this plan over escapes is, that the work 

 is done at once, in one operation. It is the method I 

 employed exclusively last season with all surplus that came 

 off the hives. And, seriously, I consider it one of the most 

 valuable things I have learned in regard to our pursuit in 

 many years. 



Of course not all the bees can be jarred oft' in this way, 

 but near enough so I pay no attention to what are left. 

 The honey-house is right in the yard, the windows of 

 which are arranged to allow bees inside to escape, but they 

 prevent those outside from entering ; so after jarring out 



in this way what bees I readilj' can from a super, it is car- 

 ried in, and what bees are left soon find their way outside. 



When a large number of supers are carried in at one 

 time, they are piled cross-wise of each other. This is 

 important, to have the bees leave the supers and house 

 readily. When the supers are tiered up tight in the regular 

 way, many of the bees will range up and down the whole 

 tier a long time before they seem to feel convinced that 

 they can not find their friends and mother somewhere in 

 the piles. 



I have seen it advised where the honey-house was in or 

 near the yard, to carry in the supers — bees and all — or at 

 least as many of them as would not readily leave by the 

 use of smoke. But this plan, as no doubt those who have 

 practiced it in a large way will be willing to testify, is a 

 very poor method to practice. It will work in a small way, 

 but when a good many bees are in each super, and a large 

 number of supers are carried in at one time, there is such 

 a mass of bees inside that they can not very soon leave by 

 an ordinary escape ; and when there are such great num- 

 bers they do not, for some reason, seem to wish to leave. I 

 have had large bunches of them hang around to the rafters 

 overhead for days, when there was nothing to prevent their 

 es:;aping, and after being thrown outdoors many of them 

 would hover around the door and windows, and again enter 

 if they got a chance. When such a great horde are carried 

 in, the noise and confusion that occurs, or something else, 

 seems to effect or derange many in some way so that they 

 take little interest in the world afterwards, or even seem to 

 know where they are or belong. Some may think that 

 these young bees are not old enough to know the location 

 of their hive ; they are bees of all ages — young, middle- 

 aged, and old — and during the working season it is not 

 difficult to tell pretty closely how old a bee is ; but the worst 

 part of this method with section-honey is that considerable 

 of it may be consumed and damaged by these bees that 

 stay in the house and supers so long, for they do not hesi- 

 tate to eat what honey they need, or rather apparently, all 

 they can possibly consume. 



But what bees I can not jounce out leave the house 

 readily, and with extracting-frames what few bees are left 

 bother but little, even if extractingis commenced as soon 

 as the supers are carried in. 



It would be natural for one to think that it would be 

 hard, heavy work to jounce in this way full-depth stories 

 that are well-filled. It is not, though, for a man of average 

 strength with 8-frame hives; and it is a great pleasure to 

 see the bees roll out. 



Still, man}' who read this, and try the plan, may regret 

 that I ever wrote anything in regard to it, for by this 

 method it is a very easy matter to break extracting-combs, 

 especially new, unwired ones. I broke a number before I 

 acquired the knack of doing it right, and found out just 

 how hard a jounce new combs could stand. But this was 

 little loss, for I fastened them in the frames again with 

 twine, and the bees attended to the rest even to cutting off 

 and carrying out the strings after they had the combs fas- 

 tened. 



Sections, the combs of which are but slightly attached 

 at the top only, can also be readily broken loose by jounc- 

 ing ; but I use bottom starters in sections, which insures 

 the combs being fastened to the wood more than strong 

 enough to endure what jarring is necessary to clear them 

 of bees. This jouncing does not need to be heavj- and 

 hard — a very quick, light jounce will accomplish more. 

 The super should be raised but sliglitly each time. It is the 

 quick, rapid jars that cause the bees to loosen their grip and 

 roll out. Southern Minnesota. 



Prove Theories Before Acceptins— A Correction on 

 tlie Diciiel Tlieory. 



BY F. GKEIXEK. 



ON page 359, Prof. A. J. Cook gives us a very interesting 

 article on the Dzierzon and Dickel theories. After 



reading it carefully I am satisfied that no one else 

 would write it as ably and use all the scientific terms cor- 

 rectly. The article contains two minor points which, 

 according to my conception, are not fully true, to which I 

 draw the attention of the Professor as well as the thinking 

 reader. 



Prof. Cook says in regard to the queen laying ferti- 

 lized and unfertilized eggs : " The queen adds or withholds 

 the sperm-cell at will." It is pretty clearly proven by the 

 late experiments of Weisman, that the queen does lay fer- 



