262 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1. 



breed from the long-tongued chaps, and weed 

 out all the short ones. You know there's been 

 red-clover queens one time and another wrote 

 about. But I guess they all run out in a little 

 while. My notion is, that those red-clover bees 

 had extra long tongues; but the only way to 

 tell it was to see the difl'erence in their yield, 

 and you couldn't keep that up soze to rely on it. 

 Now, if you had a red-clover queen to breed 

 from, or, what's the same thing, breed from 

 your longost-tongued bees, and raise drones 

 from the same, don't you see you could tell 

 what you was a doin'? And you could keep 

 that up." 



"It wouldn't be no use where there's no red 

 clover," says Jim. 



"I believe it would," says Zed. "You know 

 you'll have two hives just alike every way, fur 

 as you can see, and one will store ever so much 

 more than the other, and nobody can tell why. 

 It's the difference in their tongues, along with 

 the difference in flowers. Red-clover honey's 

 too deep to reach. Now, it stands to reason 

 that other flowers may be as deep or deeper 

 than red clover; and even on white clover the 

 bees with the shortest tongues might have 

 hard work to reach all the honey in the blos- 

 som." 



I thought to myself that wasn't sech a bad 

 idee, but I didn't say it. 



Zed went on, and, says he, "When they're 

 tryin" to make out which is the best race, and 

 whether five bands or three bands is best, let 

 them settle it by measurin' of their tongues." 



"Yes,' says ,Iim, "first thing you know 

 they'll have a Jair, and bees from all over will 

 be sent in to get the prize for the longest 

 tongues. Then they'll quit advertisin' 5, 10, or 

 l.T bands; but the advertisements will read, 

 'Queens for sale warranted to raise bees with 

 tongues three-quarters of an inch long.' " 



1 I ^ 



OPERATING A BEE-ESCAPE. 



THE I'ORTEK AND ITS I'RINCII'I>K KKfONSlIlKKKI) 

 ByC. 11' Dnyfiiii. 



I consider that the stateint'nt (in Review and 

 (Jleaninos), that I was using Porter escapes 

 both in experiment and actual practice, was a 

 fair acknowledgment : but the final report 

 upon them I shall not be prepared to make for 

 a season or two yet. The past season I used 

 four different kinds of escapes in removing (iOOO 

 lbs. of comb and extracted honey. Also several 

 colonies were kept busy going through escapes 

 from May to October, and it has become my 

 opinion that the Porter, or. for that matter, the 

 Stampede, is only a "stepping-stone" to an 

 escape which is far better than either. 



That escapes are an advantage is no question 

 with me; for, during the past season. I kept 

 an apiary within 54 feet of a much traveled 

 highway. To open a hive and brush bees from 



the combs of but one hive sent angry bees 

 thickly after passing teams and people. Es- 

 capes, on the other hand, prevented a single 

 molestation. To keep bees and take honey 

 where I was located, without escapes, was pos- 

 itively out of the question. Where bees were 

 once looked upon as a terror, there became a 

 friendly disposition toward them. 



When I began to experiment it was found 

 that the bees of some colonies went out much 

 more readily than others. The stampeding 

 disposition was discovered, and some of the 

 forms of escapes sent were far more favorable 

 to stampeding bees than others. Prior to this 

 1 had used Porter escapes, but did not inquire 

 into the philosophy of their operation any more 

 than to put them on and remove the supers 

 when empty. But when two escapes, which 

 were exactly alike, were placed upon two col- 

 onies apparently alike, and the operation consid- 

 erably different, it was queried where the dif- 

 fering existed — in the escape or in the disposi- 

 tion of the bees, or what? 



The average time taken was perhaps twelve 

 hours; but sometimes the time would be short- 

 ened down to three hours. I began to inquire 

 into the reason for having the channel of the 

 single-exit Porter of double-bee-space depth. 

 Then after a bee gets down into the channel, 

 and is about to proceed toward the springs, it 

 must ascend an elevation in the Hoor. Under 

 this elevation is an opening as if prepared for 

 the deception of bees which were seeking a 

 route to get back into the super. At the side 

 of the elevated portion of the floor are two 

 spaces as if for the passage of air. This eleva- 

 tiua in the floor is a hindrance to stampeding 

 bncs. Then the round entrance to the channel 

 is widely flanged downward, so as to interfere 

 witli stampeding bees passing forward. Asa 

 rule, the first bees to try the springs seldom go 

 tlirough until they return and inspect every 

 other part of the escape or escape- board. I 

 don't believe they want to go through the 

 springs. But the depth of the rear part of the 

 channel, and the flanged aperture, prevents 

 their getting back into the super again, and 

 they are finally forced to go through the 

 springs, from thinking there is no other exit; 

 thus when the bees get down into the channel 

 they are in a trap. Observation teaches that, 

 when the main force of bees get started they 

 crowd through without attempting to turn about 

 toward the super. Now, the number of bees 

 which are liable to be trapped by this double 

 depth of channel and flanged entrance to the 

 same does not amount to .50 bees per super, 

 which bees, if joining the throng, would go 

 through in a few seconds. But these arrange- 

 ments tend to defeat the purpose of the escape 

 by retarding the main tumult. These first 

 bees to test the springs are of a meddlesome dis- 

 position, and do not know that they are sepa- 

 rated from the queen; and to construct imple- 



