THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



679 



Mr. Hyde — Either Italians or Caruiolans. 

 Dr. Miller^I say, Tvoriti-bees 1 

 -A. I. Root— Dr. Miller's hybrids ! 



BEST HKK-ESCAPE. 



" What is the best bee-escape ?" 



Allen Barnett— I do not know whether my experience 

 counts for more than others in that line or not. I work for 

 comb honey, and I like to get the bees out of the supers 

 pretty well, so I don't use any bee-escape, only one of my 

 own,' and that is a common tent, such as is used by campers. 

 I have one about ten feet square, and I get a couple of poles 

 and leave an opening at the top of it, and then take com- 

 mon screen-wire and make a funnel, leaving one end of it 

 large enough for one bee to get out. At the other end a 

 cloth that will sit securely on the tent, so that the sides and 

 ends will lie down on the ground a few inches, so that the 

 bees can not get under. I use a little smoke, and carry the 

 super with the combs in the sections, and stand it in the 

 tent on end — not on the side, but on the end, so that the 

 sections stand up and down. I place another one close to 

 it, but not close enough so that the bees can get through. 

 You can stand them in rows. In a tent ten feet square I 

 can put as many as SO. All that you take off before noon 

 will be out in a few hours, and I can work until 3 o'clock in 

 the afternoon very well with that kind of bee-escape. As 

 quick as you go in, close down your curtain, so that the 

 bees can not come in. If you don't work later than 3 o'clock 

 in the afternoon, the bees will come out and go to their 

 homes. Sometimes bees will come from the outside and go 

 down. In order to remedy that, I make another cone of the 

 same size and shape, allowing the space of 6 or 8 inches 

 above it. They will then crawl out of the first and into the 

 second, and they seem to become confused and go back out. 

 This is the best bee-escape I have ever tried in connection 

 with taking off comb honey. I have not used the Porter, 

 but the old-fashioned ones. The bees do not have to crawl 

 up through their supers by being stacked up. 



Dr. Miller — The question as to the bee-escape depends 

 upon the intention of the proprietor. If he wants to get 

 his bees out of the super over night, or leave them as long 

 as he has a mind to, I don't believe there is anything better 

 than the Porter, because he can put it on and leave it, 

 although it may be a question between the Porter and the 

 Lareese. That has been used so little, perhaps of late, that 

 not many would remember the name, but Mr. Reese com- 

 bined the names of Larrabee and Reese in the name. But 

 if the escape is meant to get the bees out of the super so 

 that the proprietor may get them from the out-apiary and 

 take them home, then the Porter or Lareese, either, is too 

 slow, and the plan already mentioned is good. Let me give 

 you one hint as to that. All that is required in that is to 

 have a tent large enough to hold the supers. Pile them one 

 upon top of the other crosswise, then that allows them to 

 escape. Then the robbers, if it is a time when the robbers 

 are troublesome, every time you go in there to take a fresh 

 super, will try again. You will notice that the bees always 

 attack your tent from the side where the wind blows. Have 

 your door on the opposite side, and they will not come in. 

 For a good many years I have used what I think is more 

 convenient, and it is given in Root's " A B C of Bee-Cul- 

 ture " as the 'Miller Tent Escape," and that is simply a 

 combination of a robber-cloth and a cone. The robber-cloth 

 is quickly thrown over the pile of supers. Throw the rob- 

 ber-cloth over them like a tent, and then when you are ready 

 to go home you will find all the bees are out. That, I think, 

 is the most convenient way of all. 



YOUNG QUEEN T,.\VING IRREGULARLY. 



"Is a young queen which starts out like a laying 

 worker, scattering the eggs and mixing drone and worker 

 eggs badly through worker-comb, worth keeping, or should 

 she be killed at once ?" 



Dr. Miller — Try her again ; give her another trial. 



SELF SPACING FRAMES FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 



'■ In producing extracted honey, has the self-spacing 

 frame any advantage over the ordinary hanging frame ? 

 About what percentage of producers use self-spacing 

 frames ?" 



N. A. Kluck — Self-spacing frames have a great many 

 advantages. There is a great deal of difference. 



J. M Hambaugh — I think I am qualified to speak of 

 the advantages and disadvantages of self-spacing frames. 

 I have been in the business of inspecting everybody's api- 

 aries in San Diego county, and I think we have about as 



great varieties as any State in the Union. If you could go 

 with me and see the disadvantages of the different kinds of 

 self-spacing frames, you would everlastingly place con- 

 demnation on them. If you want to examine rapidly, and 

 get over a good deal of space in a day, you will almost curse 

 the time you ever saw a self-spacing frame And it is a 

 great disadvantage when it comes to rapid handling and 

 inspecting of frames throughout the country. If I had my 

 way about it, I would everlastingly do away with self-spac- 

 ing frames. That has been my experience, and I think that 

 of a good many others. There may be some advantages for 

 the time being, but wait until you want to take the frames 

 out, and get at them rapidly. Then you will find they are 

 a great disadvantage. With the other frames, you will find 

 by placing your fingers right, you can lift them right out. 

 But self-spacing frames you will have to pry out the first 

 ones, until you can lift the frames up and get them out. 

 Otherwise they are very hard to get out. 



Mr. Abbott — How about the self-spacing hive, not a 

 frame ? 



Mr. Hambaugh — I have never had any experience, if 

 you mean hives. 



Mr. Abbott — Yes, sir, I mean the body of the hives. 



Mr. Williamson — All the experience I have had fails to 

 apply when it comes to a movable frame. For rapid hand- 

 ling, you must have a loose-hanging frame. 



Mr. Hyde — I am for a hanging frame, first, last, and all 

 the time. 



Dr. Miller — There are self-spacing frames and self-spac- 

 ing frames, and it does not necessarily follow because you 

 found a hive — and you will find them — where the frames are 

 stuck fast, that all self-spacing frames act that way. The 

 only thing is to have a sufficiently small point of contact. 

 Generally you have that too large. I would like to ask Mr. 

 Hambaugh the smallest point of contact he found between 

 any of those frames. 



Mr. Hambaugh — After they were in use a certain length 

 of time I found all of them exceedingly hard to pry apart. 



Dr. Miller — If we let any large amount of space come in 

 contact that is bad. But did you find any of them touching 

 at only a single point above and below ? 



Mr. Hambaugh — No ; all touched about half way. 



Dr. Miller — If there is only a single point at the top you 

 will find those will be just a delight to handle. You will 

 have no trouble in getting them out. The bees can not 

 accumulate a lot of propolis there. We ought to have — I 

 have tried hard to get that — we ought to have a spacing- 

 nail that would automatically go in, with a head '4 -inch 

 thick. I can not get them inside of that. I use a heavy 

 common wire nail, and, with a gauge, drive it in so that it 

 projects '+ inch. A staple would answer the same thing. 



Mr. Hambaugh — To one side or another, enough so 

 that they would go past each other. 



Mr. Hershiser — Just as fast as I pull these frames out 

 of the hive I go and get a claw-hammer and pull the nails 

 or staples out. 



Dr. Miller — Anybody that does not like them — there is 

 no law against pulling them out. 



Mr. Abbott — I might say I have been using a hive for 

 more than ten years in which the hive spaces the frames. I 

 pronounced the Hoffman frame a humbug ten years ago, 

 and I actually would not have one if I were manipulating 

 it ; but why one should suppose that a frame can not be 

 spaced any other way when it can be accurately spaced 

 with metal is beyond me. The •■ St. Joe " hive has frames 

 which are spaced in that way, and you may nail your frames 

 and not touch them for ten years, and you will have no 

 trouble to lift any one of them out with ease. That hive 

 has been sold for about 15 years, all over our Western coun- 

 try, and I have heard of no complaint of frames being stuck 

 fast. 



Mr. Hambaugh — I did run across a hive of that kind 

 from which it was simply impossible to remove the frames. 

 They had gotten so propolized. and we had so everlastingly 

 much trouble trying to get those frames out and overhaul- 

 ing them, that the owner declared he would do away with 

 them. If that is the " St. Joe " hive, I don't want anything 

 to do with it. 



Mr. Abbott— That is not the " St. Joe" hive. 



Mr. Hyde — We once bought about 180 hives — I don't 

 know whether they were the " St. Joe " hive or not, but 

 when I wanted to get the frames out I had to move one at a 

 time. 



J. A. Delano — I think if we used tin right on the end of 

 our hive where the frame is, so that we could slide our 

 frames back and forth, then get a straight top-bar and a 

 straight end-bar, it does not matter what width we take 



