556 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



in the apiary near where the honey is taken; for in 

 this case many of the young bees will find their 

 hives, while they would not if carried to the room. 

 Some of our eastern bee-keepers have bee-escapes 

 on the hoods or caps to their hives, the same being 

 a cone-shaped piece of wire cloth which is placed 

 over a bole in the cover to the hive. At the point 

 of this cone is a hole large enough to admit a bee, 

 which point stands out from the hive. The honey 

 is now separated from the main hive, and commu- 

 nication with it shut off, while the passageways to 

 the sections are left open. The cover is now put 

 on, which allows no place for the bees to get out, 

 except through the bee-escapes. The bees now 

 commence to leave the sections, going out through 

 the escapes, while no robber bees can get at the 

 honey, because they do not know enough to go out 

 to the point of the cone-shaped wire cloth, but 

 keep trying to get in near the base, where the fra- 

 grance of the honey is the strongest. In a day or 

 two the honey is gathered up free of bees. When 

 I heard Mr. Manum tell of this process at a bee con- 

 vention, I at once fell in love with it, especially as 

 he told of taking off double the amount of honey in 

 a given length of time that it was possible for me 

 to do. The only drawback there is to it, and the 

 one which is applicable to all plans where the bees 

 are removed from the hive, is, that very many 

 young bees are taken with the honey, too young to 

 get back again, while the queen is sometimes car- 

 ried away, unless a queen-excluder is used, which 

 in either case results in quite a loss, especially if 

 the qr.een should happen to be in the sections. 

 Again, the bees will always fill themselves with 

 honey when thus removed; and in doing so they 

 often make the nice combs quite unsightly by their 

 gnawing the cappings to the cells. For the above 

 reasons I prefer to proceed as follows, so as to 

 leave all bees in the hive where they belong, and 

 save the harm to the combs. I go to the hive, quiet- 

 ly remove the cover and one of the outside boards 

 to the section case on the side next to me, when a 

 few puffs of smoke are given to drive the bees off 

 the face side of the combs. I next go to the oppo- 

 site side of the hive, take off the board there also, 

 and treat that side the same as the first. I now 

 point the nozzle of the smoker to each of the little 

 holes the bees always leave in the upper corners of 

 the sections, when the smoker is worked vigorous- 

 ly, say two or three puffs at each hole. The same is 

 done on the other side, using force enough with 

 the smoker to drive the smoke clear through the 

 sections from one side to the other. Now wait a 

 moment or so, to give the bees time enough to run 

 down into the hive below, when the sections are 

 taken off nearly or entirely free from bees, and are 

 ready to be stored away as soon as off, just where 

 they are wanted. Should a very few bees stick to 

 them they will be old bees, and when they fly to the 

 window of the honey-room they can be let out and 

 will always find their way back to the hive. Cau- 

 tion should be taken not to wait too long after the 

 smoke has been blown through the holes, especial- 

 ly when honey is not coming in; for if we do, a re- 

 action will take place, when the bees will run back 

 into the sections almost as lively as they went out, 

 where they will stick till they havfe filled themselves 

 with honey, in spite of smoke or any thing else. 

 When I first saw the horizontal bee-escapes which 

 were to be used in the honey-board the past winter, 

 I had great hopes for them in ridding our sections 



of bees, and allowing them' to go right down into 

 the hive where they belonged, so that, without 

 danger to either queen or young bees, we might 

 take our honey from the hives with little labor, and 

 free from bees; but I am informed that those hori- 

 zontal bee-escapes worked far better on paper than 

 they now do when they come to be used on the 

 hives. One of the inventors of these escapes writes 

 me that he is disappointed with them, on account 

 of their not doing what was expected of them. So 

 far our season for honey has proved almost a fail- 

 ure, so I have had no chance to give them even a 

 trial. I hope, if they are not already what they 

 ought to be, that some inventive genius may find 

 out where the trouble is, and give us an escape 

 that can be placed under a case of sections or an 

 extracting super at night, and rid it of bees before 

 morning. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., July 17. 



Friend D., I am very sorry indeed to hear 

 that you have succeeded no better with the 

 horizontal bee -escapes. At the time so 

 much was said about them I was a little 

 fearful that it would turn out as you say. 

 Perhaps, however, others have succeeded 

 better. Eriends, will you please give us 

 your experience, especially in using the hor- 

 izontal bee-escape to get the bees off: from 

 your comb honey? 



KEENEY'S COMB-SPACER 



A DEVICE TO GET RID OF BURR-COMB!?, THICK 

 TOP-BARS, AND HONEY-BOARDS. 



I THINK it was Josh Billings who asked the ques- 

 tion, "What's tne use of learning so much, when 

 half you learn ain't so?" I have thought of it often 

 during the last year, when reading the different ar- 

 ticles in bee-periodicals upon the subjects of burr- 

 combs, sagging top-bars, thick top-bars, beveled top- 

 bars, with many devices illustrated to prevent them. 

 Ah me! howwelllknow that many things for use in 

 the apiary are perfect in theory, but practically are 

 total failures. No subjects in apiarian work have I 

 given so much study to, as properly and accurately 

 spacing my combs, preventing burr - combs and 

 sagging top-bars, and I am happy to say I am mas- 

 ter of the situation, and my frames are as free 

 from burr-combs (except when sections are on) as 

 when you ship them from the factory. With my 

 spacing - device, bees winter better, come out 

 stronger in spring, and, as a practical test, every 

 other hive to the number of fifty, for two years, the 

 spacers were left out; and those with it in swarm- 

 ed 16 days the earliest, on an average, through the 

 apiary, showing they were warmer, and bred up 

 much faster— fully 40 per cent. Bees can be moved 

 to and from out-apiaries, to and from cellar, or 

 about the yard, without a frame slipping or shuck- 

 ing a particle. It is applicable to any kind or size 

 of movable-frame hive, with combs wired as de- 

 scribed in Gleanings for May 15th. Every comb 

 will be as even and true as so many boards. Loaf- 

 ing-places for from 100 to 1000 bees will be closed. 

 Any frame in the apiary will exactly fit the place 

 of any other frame, no matter from what hive tak- 

 en, making them all interchangeable, so desirable 

 to every apiarist. The spacers can be taken out or 

 put In in half a minute, and they do not cost 5 cents 

 per hive. I have fully tested them two years with 

 pride, pleasure, and profit. I use a hive similar In 



