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GLEANINGS IN REE CULTURE. 



JuNi!. 1. 



THE NEW JARDINE BEE-ESCAPE. 



A BEE-ESCAPE WITH SIX OPENINGS. 

 By James Pearson. 



During the past half-dozen years or more, all 

 of our " up to date " bee-keepers have used 

 some kind of bee-escape. All readers of Glean- 

 ings surely know the principle involved in all 

 makes of escapes; viz., that of letting bees out 

 through an opening which will not allow them 

 to return. In this way the bees are coaxed out 

 of the super-cases down into the brood-frames, 

 through the doors or openings of the escape, by 

 the simple law of nature which has been taught 

 them by the divine Hand, to " keep near the 

 leader" (in this case the queen). 



Among the older and standard makes is the 

 Porter escape. We do not wish to run down 

 thftt or any other make for a minute, but, 

 rather, bow in thanks and praise to the good 

 work which they have done, and speak from 

 the ever-clattering tongue of progress, " Well 

 done, thou good and faithful servant." 



In all lines of invention we find the first now 

 taking the back seat, while the new inventors 

 have founded their thoughts upon some solid 

 principle of a by-gone inventor, and thus come 

 before the public with new and superior de- 

 vices of all sorts. As it is thus true in almost 

 all lines of inventions, so is it very true in the 

 line of bee-escapes. We give here a cut of the 

 new " Jardine " escape. 



At the first glance the experienced bee-keeper 

 will see the fundamental principle of its supe- 

 riority over the Porter; viz., do the same work 

 quicker. The Porter and other standard makes 

 are provided with but one opening, while this 

 escape has six. Any child in primary arithme- 

 tic can understand very clearly that a larger 

 number of bees can pass out through six doors 

 muc h quicker than through one door of the 

 same size. We put the escape in the center of 



a board bound with cleats, which holds the 

 super above the brood-frames, about the same 

 as is used with other escapes. Supposing you 

 fix up six Porter escapes, you must have six of 

 these boards, and six escapes, in order to get 

 the separating capacity which we have with 

 one of our Jardine escapes. 



Our escape is made round. The top and bot- 

 tom pieces are thin wood securely fastened to- 

 gether with six wood screws. The top piece is 

 about five inches across, with a 13^-inch hole in 

 the center, which provides ample passage for 

 the bees. The bottom is about four inches 

 across. The partitions are made of tin, all 

 pressed to a perfect shape, and very neatly 

 nailed to the wood members of the device with 

 very fine furniture brads. Each door is pressed 

 to a perfect size, and hung to the top piece of 

 wood by means of a little staple. Each door 

 hangs just high enough from the bottom to al- 

 low a bee's head to go under. 



When the bee is on the inside of the escape, 

 and wishes to go out, it can easily raise the 

 door, and pass through, after which the door 

 at once closes, like a flood-gate in the river. 

 The doors shut with flanges, passing on the 

 outside of the partitions (or door-frame) in such 

 a manner as not to allow any slicking the doors 

 shut. The escape is put up in such a manner 

 as to look very attractive, and, in fact, is at- 

 tractive, or, at least, the idea, " time is worth 

 money," is, and hence a machine that will 

 save time will save money. The inventor, Mr. 

 Jas. Jardine, of Ashlaud, Neb., is an old prac- 

 tical bee-keeper, and has used this escape for 

 years, with gratifying results, which alone in- 

 duced him to introduce it to the public. A 

 year ago he sent out several escapes for trial to 

 such persons as Dr, Mason, Hon. E. Whitcomb, 

 Mrs. Heater, and others, and each escape 

 brought back a very favorable testimonial let- 

 ter after the season was over last fall. Of 

 course, the cost will be a little more than the 

 ordinary "single-file" escapes; but it will not 

 cost nearly as much as the others in proportion 

 to its capacity, besides the saving of so many 

 escape-boards. All these things must be taken 

 into consideration. 



German town. Neb. 



[Some time ago we received one of these es- 

 capes. They are very nicely made, and look as 

 if they would work. V/e have had an engrav- 

 ing made, and present it to our readers. Per- 

 haps I ought to state that the Porters claim 

 that more than one exit for the escape of bees 

 does not facilitate the emptying of the super, 

 as one would naturally suppose. They tried 

 escapes with one exit, and then with a number 

 of exits; and after a long series of experiments 

 they came to the conclusion that there was no 

 gain by increasing the number of exits. On 

 the contrary, something was lost by increasing 

 the expense unnecessarily. These experiments 

 were verified at the time by one or two others 

 whose names I do not now recall. 



The principle of this escape is not entirely 

 new. It is very much like the flood-gate prin- 



