Se|)tembei-, 1915. 



American liee Journal 



ering of straw or hay. Another be- 

 longs to the Trappe of Yang Kia Pin, 

 three days west of Pekin, numbering 

 about 20 hivs. Very good mountain 

 honey is produced from a special peach 

 tree and lime trees, introduced by the 

 Rev. F. Trappists. 



Many at empts have been made by 

 Kuropeans and Japanese to introduce 

 Italian bees in China, but up to the 

 present with little success. A friend 

 in beekeeping, Mr. B.. has bought 

 more than 20 queen bees from America 

 or Australia, but all were dead on ar- 

 rivaj except three which the bees 

 quickly dispatched to their ancestors — 

 " out with the foreigners." Lately the 

 Chinese Government has manifested 

 the intention of improving beekeeping, 

 but years may pass before any- 

 thing is done in practice. However, 

 that industry could give very satisfac- 

 tory results in many places. 



In Shanghai, where, as a rule, win- 

 ters are very mild, about — 5 degrees C, 

 (plus 23 degrees F.) strong colonies 

 rear brood during the whole winter (a 

 fact I have ascertained myself the last 

 two seasons). Wax scales are very 

 abundant on the bottom or floor. Dur- 

 ing the calm sunny days of November, 

 December and lanuary, the bees are 

 gathering a good deal of pollen and 

 honey from the loquat tree, just blos- 

 soming in winter; the consequence is 

 that many colonies may swarm even in 

 March. Middle China is in the same 

 latitude as Texas. 



Unfortunately our flora is very poor, 

 China having no meadows and no 

 woods. Here are our best honey 

 plants : the colza or rape, the coronilla, 

 some fruit trees, the wistaria, the Vir- 

 ginia creeper, the cucurbitaceae, the 

 sunflower, the cotton, the loquat; of 

 them the first only is abundant. 



The honey, very inferior in flavor to 

 European or American honey, is used 

 only as a remedy, and the quantity ob- 

 tained from a colony amounts to a few 

 pounds only; 10 pounds would he a 

 rich crop. Foreign honey is sold here 

 at 8") cents to $1.00 a pound. The British 

 Bee Journal, the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. Gleanings in Bee Culture, and 

 L'Apiculteur, of Paris, are read and 

 circulated in Shanghai, where the bee- 

 keepers, a dozen already, seem to have 

 a keen interest in beekeeping, and no 

 doubt will improve that ever interest- 

 ing branch of agriculture. Appliances 

 are supplied by Messrs. Taylor, Gamage, 

 Maigre, Root, etc. 



Shanghai, China. 



A Canadian Bee-Escape Board 



BY W. I. HOLTERMANX. 



I HAVE read an article written by J. 

 L. Byer in your number for July, 

 page 231, asking about a new bee- 

 escape board put out three years ago 

 by A. F. Hodgson. 



I have seen this escape board work- 

 ing from the first, and there is no fail- 

 ure in it under proper condition. I 

 have seen every bee out of the supers 

 in three hours, when the escape had 

 been put on early in the morning of a 

 fine day, when the bees are working 

 well. 



This is merely an improvement on 

 the old solid escape board. It consists 

 of a Porter double-exit bee escape, in 



a wire-screen board to allow heat to 

 continue in the supers after the bees 

 have left. The old escape board has 

 always been more or less of a handi- 

 cap to extracted honey producers, as 

 cold honey is hard to uncap and ex- 

 tract. 



I am sending you a diagram or 

 sketch of the board. I trust it will 

 make things intelligible. I refer to the 

 doublee.xit escape, because it is much 

 quicker than the single. Many escapes 

 made do not work properly, as the 

 least little jar seems to alter the springs 

 so that they have to be spaced properly 

 again, not a very convenient bit of 

 work when the escape is fast in the 

 center strip of the board. Mr. Hodg- 

 son always uses the Porter double-exit 

 escapes, and they seem to stand hard 

 usage. 



A galvanized screen is used, the same 

 as an ordinary window screen. Mr. 

 Hodgson also uses these escape boards 

 for moving bees from one apiary to 

 another. He closes the entrance solid 

 and places the escape board on top. 

 That is the chief reason for the one 

 inch space under it. 



I have found trouble in store for me 

 when a queen accidentally gets into 

 the super and breeds there. Bees 

 simply will not leave brood above; it 

 is a case of brushing the combs oft 

 one by one, or taking the brood and 

 queen and placing them down in the 

 brood-chamber. Late in the fall or in 

 cool weather with no honey flow bees 

 are much slower in leaving the supers. 

 In the latter part of July and the month 

 of August is usually our extracting 

 season. We run only for clover honey. 

 When I start taking honey oflf, I make 

 it a point to go a day beforehand and 



slip the escapes under the supers. I 

 expect to be able to extract the next 

 day. This is done usually in the morn- 

 ing, say 8 o'clock, then next morning I 

 can go and take these supers oflf and 

 put the escapes under another lot of 

 supers This is certainly a short cut 

 for the beekeeper running for extracted 

 honey. No man could clean the bees 

 out of 10 12frame supers and have them 

 in the extracting room within an hour 

 and a half, with the old method of 

 brushing. 



I believe this escape is protected by 

 a patent, but further particulars may be 

 obtained from A. F. Hodgson, Jarvis, 

 Ontario, Canada. 



Just a word of warning to those who 

 have never used bee escapes in robbing 

 time. Always put a burlap cloth 

 directly under the cover, when putting 

 the escape on the hive. This cloth 

 should hang over and down the sides 

 of super at least six inches. When all 

 the bees are out of the super, it is an 

 easy prey to robbers if an entrance 

 can be gained even for a single bee at 

 a time. The supers may have to be 

 left for a longer time than expected; 

 then the robbers would do your ex- 

 tracting for you if the supers are not 

 protected. 



Jarvis, Ont. 



[The above article is very practical. 

 Not only may the combs in the supers 

 get cold if the weather is cool after the 

 bees have left them, but they may also 

 get loo hot in very warm days, when 

 ventilation cannot be forced up by the 

 bees. If the escape board described 

 by our correspondent is successful, it 

 will remedy both faults Editor.] 



HODGSONS BEE-KSCAPK B( lAKU 



./. strip Hxi inch: />'. strip ixi inch: C. center strip containing bee-escape h\i inch; 



D, bee-escape, ^-inch space above, i-inch space below 



