6 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Jan. 



I hope all will give it a trial. If it will help to make 

 the labors of beekeeping any easier or more pleas- 

 ant I shall feel well repaid. C. H. Dibbern. 

 Milan, 111. 



After we received friend Dibbern's arti- 

 cle as above, the following communication 

 from friend Keese himself came to hand : 



Mr. Root:— I inclose you a portion of a private 

 letter just i-eceived from Mr. C. H. Dibbern, which 

 will explain itself somewhat, in regard to the latest 

 improved bee-escape, of which I send you a model. 



REESE'S HORIZONTAL BEE-ESCAPE. 



You can see there are no projections in my new es- 

 cape to Interfere with bee spaces in anyway; and 

 the escape-boards can be piled up snugly for future 

 use. They can also be used for inner covers for 

 brood-chambers or supers by stopping the passage; 

 and in hot weather, what a beautiful plan for ven- 

 tilation over the top of the surplus cases! 

 Winchester, Ky., Dec. 4. J. S. Reese. 



The letter referred to by friend Reese is 

 as follows ; and as it contains some addi- 

 tional hints we give it to our readers : 



Dear Friend Reese:— Your welcome letter of yes- 

 terday, together with your model of bee-escape, is 

 just at hand. I am much pleased with your escape, 

 and I know it will work perfectly. In so far as there 

 are no projections, it is perhaps an improvement 

 on mine. Still, as all modern hives have bee-spaces, 

 I see no objections to it on that account. Again, 

 when used for an inner cover, yours could be cov- 

 ered by a piece of tin, while mine would have to be 

 removed, unless there was a full bee-space in un- 

 der the board, in which case it would be necessary 

 only to plug up the hole and turn it over. I pre- 

 sume it will require a season's experience to decide 

 which is really the better. I admit that yours is an 

 ingenious arrangement— something that I tried to 

 conceive, but failed. Since writing you before, I 

 have made a board with a center escape, and it is a 

 beauty. Still, I don't know that it is any improve- 

 ment on the single-exit escape. 



Milan, 111., Dec. 3. C. H. Dibbern. 



Without question, friends Dibbern and 

 lieese have given the bee-keeping world a 

 valuable invention, and they both deserve 

 the thanks of bee-keepers for the part each 

 has played in the matter, and for so freely 

 giving "their ideas to the bee-keeping public. 

 Priend Reese's bee-escape was a good thing, 

 and worked satisfactorily, as we gather 

 from a large number of reports ; but there 

 was just one trouble with it, and that was, 

 that the cone stuck up perpendicularly 

 above the board, making it necessary to 

 have an empty super, or something of the 

 sort, to take in the cones ; but friend Dib- 

 bern has very ingeniously laid the cones, as 

 it were, on their sides, and flattened them 



down so they could be adapted to an ordina- 

 ry honey-board— the same, bee-spaced on 

 one or both sides, as the case might be. 

 With such an arrangement it is possible to 

 put the escape between the hive and super, 

 without bothering with an empty super- 

 shell. It would be well to incorporate 

 Reese's escape into Dibbern's board, then 

 there will be no possibility of the cones 

 themselves being damaged. Ernest. 



DON'T RAISE A SUEPLUS OP DHONES. 



DOOtilTTLE'S VIEWS ON AN IMPORTANT MATTER. 



From what I have seen in nearly every apiary 

 which I have visited in the past, I am of the opin- 

 ion that bee-keepers lose very much of the profits 

 which they might otherwise secure, by having too 

 much drone comb in their hives. Each colony 

 should be allowed one or two inches of drone comb, 

 but no more, unless such colony is one which we 

 wish to rear drones from for the improvement of 

 our stock, and in this case I generally give from one 

 to three frames of such combs. Where three drone 

 combs are used in each hive, it is a rare thing that 

 I secure any surplus honey from this colony, for 

 the drones will consume nearly if not quite all the 

 surplus honey gathered bj' that colony, especially 

 if I try to have the colony keep these drones 

 throughout the season. To be sure, the colony will 

 generally give some surplus right in the height of 

 the season; but this must be given back for the 

 drones, if they are kept after the honey harvest. I 

 have given this item so that the readers may know 

 just what a lot of drones in each hive will cost 

 them. "But," says ono, "if this is the case, why 

 allow any drone comb in any but the colony which 

 is to rear drones?" The reason for allowing one 

 or two inches of drone comb to each colony is, that 

 all colonies, which I have ever seen, will have some 

 drone comb any way, even if they have to tear down 

 the worker-cells to get it, building drone comb in 

 its stead. Now, where we try to exclude every cell 

 of drone comb, the bees revolt, and build drone 

 comb in outof-the-way places, a few cells here and 

 a few there, so that the bee-keeper has no chance 

 of keeping unwelcome drones from flying, by way 

 of decapitating them just before they hatch, un- 

 less he uses a drone trap, which thing is an incon- 

 venience to the bees and their owner, generally 

 speaking. By having this one or two inches of 

 drone comb all together in a single comb, and that 

 comb placed in a certain position in every hive, it 

 is a very easy thing to open the hives every 23 days 

 and decapitate all the drones in a whole apiary. 

 By placing this comb on the outside, or next to the 

 side of the hive furthest from where the brood- 

 nf St is, in the spring, the queen will not lay in it 

 till the bees become strong enough to compel her 

 (so to speak) to lay in drone-cells. In this way 

 drones are not produced in hives thus flxed till late 

 in the season: and if left in this position, none will 

 be reared late, as these oul side combs are the first 

 to be filled with honey, thus doing away with any 

 more drones, as the bees are not as anxious for 

 drones at this season of the year, hence will not 

 take the honey out of the drone-cells to rear them. 

 In this way , about twice decapitating the drones dur- 

 ing one season is all that is needed with any colony, 



"But," I think I hear gome one else say, "it is 



