I89<) 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



633 



another osoapc that wdrkcd very woll. It is 

 simply a frame the si/.c of tlii> top of tlic liivo, 

 and about 114 iiiolu'S higli, with two or thnn' 

 cones made of common w ire cloth tacked over 

 so many tliree-fourths-inch lioles in one end of 

 tlie frame. The cones were made about 1^' 

 inches long. These escapes were put on the 

 same as the others, with the cones turned to the 

 front of th(^ hiv(>. In atumt half an hour thc^ 

 bees could be seen rolling out of the cones as 

 fast as they could get out, and down over the 

 fnmt of the hive, into the entrance below. The 

 only objection to this kind of escape, that I 

 could see, was, robbers might find their way 

 in, but I think not to amount to any thing, and 

 they are not so easily taken care of, as tlie cones 

 are' in the way, and are in danger of being 

 mashed. 



I regard the bee-escaj)e as one of the best 

 inventions of the day. ^^ hat the improvements 

 will be in the future, remains to be seen. 



Millsboro. Pa., Aug. 14. Osmax McCahty. 



FUKTIIEIJ TESTIMONY. 



In response to the editor's call for experience 

 with bee-escapes in getting bees out of supers, 

 I am able to report that the new Dibbern hori- 

 zontal bee-escape is a success. The escapes are 

 to be adjusted under the supers, and left on over 

 night. In the morning the supers will be foimd 

 nearly or quite rid of bees. In one case, three 

 stories of my hive full of honey and bees were 

 cleared in one night, so that there were only a 

 dozen or two bees remaining. There seemed to 

 be no disturbance to the colony, and work was 

 resumed as if nothing had happened. 



The supers are, however, not so quickly or so 

 completely emptied, as a rule, when the escape 

 rests only ;?s of an incli above the frames as 

 where a rim one or two inches deep intervenes 

 between the escape and the hive. With the 

 shallow rim beneath the escape, the supers will 

 generally be found cleared of every bee the next 

 morning. The rims I used were 2 inches deep, 

 and have various other uses in the apiary, as in 

 the introducing of queens, in shipping, etc. 



It is somewhat remarkable that the bees do 

 not bite into the cappings of the honey by the 

 new mode of clearing supers. This fact alone 

 is worth considerable to the bee-keeper, as by 

 no other method except one can the bees be pre- 

 vented from mutilating the cappings. Every 

 one of the plans recommended by friend Doolit- 

 tle, on page .5.55, are open to this objection, and 

 are regarded as impracticable to bee-keepers in 

 general where the honey is to be taken expedi- 

 tiously and in good order. 



There is but one plan I know of to get bees 

 out of supers with smoke successfully, and it is 

 as follows: Make a frame 4 inches d(>ep for a 

 stand, and wide enough so as to stand the supers 

 up endwise. Nail at each corner a leg one foot 

 long. Place this stand near the front of the 

 hive. Now light a good smoker, lift the cover 

 of the super off, and smoke the bees down. 

 Hand the smoker to an assistant, and lift off 

 the super and place on the stand. While the 

 assistant works the smoker, vigorously throwing 

 the smoke through the sections, the apiarist 

 takes a hand brush-broom, and by quick move- 

 ments brushes off the bees in front of the hive 

 as fast as they come out of the super. In less 

 than two minutes every bee can be driven out. 

 The assistant then carries the super to the 

 honey-house, while the apiarist takes off an- 

 other super and places on the stand, or moves to 

 the next hive. By this plan the surplus honey 

 of a large apiary can be taken off in one day, 

 and in the best of order, and without bother 

 from robbing. 



The objection to the plan is the rough and 

 cruel treatment necessitated to the bees. I con- 



fess not to have been in favor of the introduc- 

 tion of b(>e-escapes: but the Dibbern b(M'-(>scape 

 overcomes my anticipated objections; and be- 

 lieving that o"ur bees deserve humane treatment 

 at our hands, I shall use it hereafter in taking 

 off my honey. Dk. G. L. Tinker. 



New Philadelphia, O., Aug. 15. 



STII.I. Fl'RTHEU TESTIMONY. 



On page .5.56 I find the following: "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 extract- 

 ing-supei- at night, and rid it of bees before 

 morning." 



While I think that Mr. Doolittle will find 

 that we can n<'ver get an escape to work just as 

 he has stated in the above sentence. I wish to 

 say that that "'inventive genius" has already 

 put in his appearance. I have been using bee- 

 escapes all summer, and they have given me 

 such satisfaction that I feel safe in saying that 

 such escai»es as I am using will give as mnch 

 satisfaction in a practical way as T supers or 

 bee-smokers. While bee-smokers will occa- 

 sionally go out or burn out just about the time 

 we need them most, they are indispensable to 

 success in keeping bees. So with T supers: 

 while they are objectionable in some respects^ 

 we can liot dispense with them until we find 

 something better to take their place. And we 

 have a bee-escape that will get the bees out of. 

 surplus-receptacles, and keep them out; but I 

 have found, that, when the escapes ar(» placed 

 on the hives late in the evening, or even after 

 the middle of the afternoon, but very few, if 

 any. of the supers will be cleared of bees by 

 daylight or sunrise the next morning, simply 

 because the bees appear not to be inclined to 

 change about or leave the supers during the 

 night. 



I have taken off over 1800 lbs. of comb honey 

 with as little inconvenience, and less trouble 

 with bees, than I usually experience in taking 

 off 100 lbs. Hy adjusting the boards in the 

 morning, say from 7 to 9 o'clock, the supers will 

 usuallv be ready by 1 or 2 o'clock in th(^ after- 

 noon: "and. if the boards are immediately ad- 

 justed under another set of supers, these can be 

 removed early the next morning, thus using the 

 same escape twice in one day. The honey-ttow, 

 conditions of the weather, and the disposition 

 of different colonies of bees, all these have their 

 influence, and tend to make up a varied experi- 

 ence in the use of bee-escapes. Coloni(>s that 

 are quiet and not easily disturbed are slow to 

 move out of the supers; and hives that are 

 overcrowded with bees, if the weather contines^ 

 them to the hive, will so choke up the outlets of 

 the escapes that the bees in the supers appear 

 for a time to be unable to force their way out. 

 But these are exceptional cases; and in the 

 latter, two escape-boards, placed one on top of 

 the other, soon clear the super. 



The cone escapes can not be mad(> satisfac- 

 tory. I have used cone escapes that an^ much 

 superior to the Reese or DibbiMn i)atterns, which 

 have worked reasonably satisfactorily under 

 ordinary conditions, but "in every-day work the 

 bees find their way back througli them more or 

 less. What is wanted, and what I have been 

 using for nearly three months, is an escapi^ that 

 will permit the bees to pass out easily and 

 rapidly, and at the sam(> time allow no bees to 

 return. The inventor of these escapes is a bee- 

 keeper of this county; and while he is endeav- 

 oring to get up something that is of practical 

 utility, he is in no hurry to offer escapi^s for 

 sale, preferring to give them the test of a whole 

 season's operations. S. A. Shuck. 



Liverpool, 111., Aug. 23. 



