634 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



MORE ON IIORIZONTAI- BKK-ESCAPES. 



In regard to the working of the horizontal 

 bee-escape, friend Dibbern's four-point escape 

 is not a success. Mr. D. has a new tin escape 

 that worlts nicely. I have been testing it for 

 two weeks. It will rid an extracting-super in 

 two to three hours, and the bees stay out. It 

 will clean the bees out, even with brood in 

 combs; but they are longer in leaving. The 

 hives were full of bees, and I did not put on an 

 empty super, so you see they w(>nt down into 

 the hive already crowded with bees. I was 

 much pleased with the first one Mr. D. offered 

 for sale, and I made up a lot of 2.5: but I was 

 soon disappointed, for they did not clean a case 

 of honey in a week. But I found a use for the 

 boards, and will keep them for introducing 

 queens, feeding, and covers for super cases. 



Unionville, Mo.. Aug. 16. E. F. Quigley. 



HORIZONTAL BEE-ESCAPE A SIIC'CESS. 



You ask for accounts of the use of the hori- 

 zontal bee-escapes. I am very much pleased 

 with the working of mine. With them I can 

 take off my honey without any use of smoke or 

 disturbing the bees, or exposing the yard to 

 robbing. I prepare the board to tit in the inside 

 of a super, resting on the tins which support 

 the frames. An assistant takes the super thus 

 prepared, and stands ready to slip it on the hive 

 as I lift the super with honey, and then place it 

 on the super containing the escai)e. The whole 

 operation takes but a moment. The next day 

 I take the top super away undisturbed, and 

 leave the escape till I prepare them for winter. 

 A small piece of burlap takes the place of the 

 tin; and this covered with a woolen quilt, the 

 winter work is done. G. A. Adams. 



Perrysburg, O., Aug. 14. 



IIOKIZONTAI. BEE-ESCAPE AI.I> RIGHT. 



I see by Gleanings that the horizontal bee- 

 escape is not working satisfactorily for friend 

 Doolittle and others. I am using it, and with 

 good results. I made my escape-board so as to 

 give a double bee-space between it and the sec- 

 tions or frames below. The escapes were made 

 so as to give % of an inch space between the 

 sides of the inside and outside escape. If I 

 make any more escape-boards I shall try a full 

 inch space between it and the hive or case of 

 sections below. The bees will not cluster so 

 thick on the escape, and will not be so apt to 

 Hnd their way back into the upper case of sec- 

 tions. 



My bees are doing well. I liave secured 150 

 pounds clover honey (comb) from five colonies, 

 spring count. I expect twice that amount from 

 buckwheat and fall flowers. D. I. Wagar. 



P^lat Rock, Mich., Aug. 8. 



ANOTHER FAV0RABI>P: REPORT. 



As you ask for reports on bee-escapes, and as 

 I used six Dibbern improved escai)es, I report 

 that I found them a success under section hon- 

 ey every time. When used under extracting- 

 cases I inet with two failures; but on examina- 

 tion I found in one case there was brood; in the 

 other case, no perceptible cause, so I count only 

 one failure. Of course, there were sometimes 

 from 12 to 20 bees that had not worked out — 

 never more, and frequently none. Few inven- 

 tions are perfect. With me the bee-escape is 

 as. near perfect as the bees themselves, for they, 

 have failed here right along. From 40 colonies; 

 spring count, I have 1200 lbs. extracted and 350 

 lbs. comb, and no rain to insure honey. Never 

 before have I had unfinished sections of comb 

 honey enough for bait the following spring; 

 but I have them now to spare. Well, they are 

 not the trouble I expected them to be. I cut 



them out and till the cracks with extracted 

 honey, and they go like hot cakes in my home 

 trade. I shall have no other this year. In fact, 

 I shall lack at least one ton of enough extract- 

 ed honey, and probably be 1000 lbs. short on 

 comb honey. I have been trying to buy, but so 

 far I have not succeeded in getting an article 

 that I felt justified in buying at prices asked. 

 Moberley, Mo., Aug. 9. J. Richardson. 



BEE-KEEPING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



A VISIT I{EVE.\LIN<i EXCELLENT TERRITORY, 

 WITH FEW BEES AND POORER METHODS. 



As pel' promise. I will send you a few notes 

 gathered from a tour of the mountain counties 

 of this State. In company with a friend I took 

 leave, of this, a ratlnn- central location, to see 

 what could be found of interest in the line of 

 the bee-industiy. The first thing to imi)ress us 

 was the extreme scarcity of bees. This fact is 

 the more striking when we are forced to con- 

 clude that these mountain counties are the very 

 paradise of the honey-bee. The famous sour- 

 wood, which is the basswood of the South, 

 abounds on <'very hand. Then there is a long 

 list of nectar-producing plants and trees that 

 give an almost continuous flow from February 

 till frost. There are immense tracts of forest 

 that will n^main such, as the lands are iu)t fer- 

 tile. We found a few bee-keepers who liad in 

 use the Mitchell, or ••adjustable" hive, and the 

 old American. All claimed to be using patent 

 hives, for which they had paid. 



The first call we made was with a good broth- 

 er bee-keeper who claimed to have 150 colonies, 

 all in the Mitchell patent division-board- 

 adjustable-i'eaotioii hive. He said he was very 

 much wedded to tliis hive, but lie said his con- 

 fidence in the inventor was not as strong as in 

 days of yore. We were so completely dumb- 

 founded when this friend told us that he had 

 never used a bee-smoker, nor taken a Ix^e- 

 journal. that we forgot to hand him a coijy of 

 Gleanings from our grip, and also to show him 

 a Clark smoker we had with us. In justice to 

 this friend, w(> must say that he owned up to 

 having had a copy of King's text-book, but that 

 he had not seen it in years. We will take leave 

 of our good host when we say that his success 

 in bee culture is not the kind that succeeds, 

 taking his own statement for it. 



We made a few minutes' call on another bee- 

 brother who has about 20 colonies in the Amer- 

 ican hive. His bees were too high for the weeds 

 to trouble. His crop of honey last year was 

 fine, but had in a measure failed this season. 

 On b(>ing asked if a good crop once in two years 

 did not pay him to keep bees, he said it did. 

 We gave this friend a copy each of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal -awA Gleanings. These men 

 are about a type of the bee-keepers of this, as 

 good a field,' all things considered, as can be 

 found south of the Mason and Dixon line. Al- 

 most all have the black bee. 



We heard the most remarkable stories in 

 regard to the fall of honey-dew during last 

 winter. One reliable man told of his pants be- 

 coming coated while rabbit-hunting in the 

 sedge-fields. We should like to hear what Prof. 

 Cook has to say in regard to a winter crop of 

 honey-dew. 



Oui' bees had begun to nose ai'ound the cotton 

 bloom befoi-e w(^ left. and. to our pleasant sur- 

 prise, we found them fairly rich, all from this 

 source. One-third of this time was very rainy 

 too. so bees had only about ten days to get from 

 a starving condition to a comparatively pros- 

 perous one. This was so only with colonies that 

 kept broodrrearing right along through Junp. 



