THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



24? 



The reader will please pardon the 

 g-aruillity of said grand father. 



Bee Escapes Versus Brushing. 



Of late the Review has been publish- 

 ing- several articles from men who are 

 successful in removing extracting combs 

 without the use of bee escapes, even in 

 times of scarcity when robbers stand 

 ready to make trouble. I haven't the 

 least doubt that some of these plans are 

 practical, in fact. I expect to give some of 

 them a trial, personally, here at Flint, in 

 extracting about 100, ten-frame supers 

 of honey. Not only do I wish the 

 actual experience myself, but I wish to 

 avoid the trouble and expense of warm- 

 ing up the honey. 



The use of bee escapes enables one to 

 free supers of bees with the least possi- 

 ble labor. To their use there can be only 

 two possible objections, viz., that some 

 time must elapse while the bees are 

 passing out, and that the honey thus 

 removed is too cool to extract and must 

 be warmed up artificially. Suppose that 

 a man wishes to take a crew and drive 

 out several miles to an out-apiary, 

 extract the honey that day, and return 

 at night, it is evident that the bee escape 

 has no place in such a plan. In order to 

 use it. some one would have to go the 

 day before and put on the escapes; then, 

 after the honey was off the hives, it 

 would have to be warmed up, which 

 takes time. 



Honey extracted in warm weather is 

 in condition to extract when the bees are 

 brushed or shaken from the combs, but 

 if it is left on the hives until cool, fall- 

 weather, it is too thick and too cold to 

 extract to advantage even when taken 

 right from the bees, especially if the 

 extracting is done by hand. If the honey 

 is to be warmed artificially, then there is 

 no question whatever of the superiority of 

 of the bee-escape plan. Two men can 

 put a bee escape board on a hive in five 

 seconds, and the next day the super can 

 be lifted off entirely free from bees. 



For ease, and amount of labor, certainly 

 no plan can surpass this. As our ex- 

 tracting is not done until late, when the 

 honey is thick and cold, and must be 

 warmed to extract by hand, there is no 

 question but what the use of bee escapes 

 is the best plan for us. We have ar- 

 rangements for eating and sleeping at 

 our out-yard, and we go there and stay, 

 and take our time for it, until the extract- 

 ing is all done. The honey is removed 

 without the least disturbance, and with 

 very little labor, then warmed up and 

 extracted. All told, more time is con- 

 sumed, probably, than by brushing off 

 the bees and thus avoiding the warming 

 of the honey, but the hurly burly of the 

 honey flow is over, and there is no 

 necessity for haste; and one thing more, 

 the quality of the product is unsurpass- 

 able. 



As I have said so many times, each 

 man must work out a plan that is best 

 adapted to himself and his environments. 



Lditor of the Review has been Sick. 



As a rule, 1 don't weary my readers 

 with my troubles, but it is due to those 

 whose letters went unanswered, and to 

 those who wondered why the July Review 

 was late, to know the reason why. 



Each summer, for the last two or three 

 years, 1 have suffered more or less from 

 what the doctors say is a sluggishness 

 of the organs of elimination, allowing the 

 system to become overloaded with waste 

 matter. As soon as cool weather comes 

 in the fall, 1 "brace" up and feel well all 

 winter, but, with the advent of warm 

 weather comes trouble — a lowering of 

 the vitality. Even out-door exercise does 

 not overcome the difficulty. I had been 

 feeling bad all of the spring, but kept 

 working away on "nerve." I had just 

 begun to put supers on the hives here at 

 Flint, and, fortunately, had the copy all 

 ready for the July Review, when a fever 

 set in. Right in that hottest of weather, 

 for 10 days, my temperature was 105. 

 In one sense. 1 suppose Nature was burn- 

 ing up the garbage. The remedy was 



