AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



211 



Bee-Escap Hoiiey-Boari anil Swarming. 



Written :f or the American Bee Journal 

 BY W. C. LYMAN. 



On page 83 Mr. Deraaree tells how he 

 has prevented swarming by raising the 

 sealed brood above the excluder ; and on 

 page 80, Mr. T. I. Dugdale tells how he 

 prevents increase by placing the old 

 brood-chamber on top of the hive in 

 which he puts the new swarm. Both of 

 these plans are excellent, but have not 

 given me full satisfaction, because drone- 

 brood hatching above an excluder, dies 

 there, unless the hive is opened often 



board of ^-inch lumber, having the 

 usual rim around it, so as to give a %- 

 inch bee-space on the upper side ; but I 

 made it of only three strips of wood — 

 on« wide, one on each side, and a nar- 

 row one (two Inches wide) in the center, 

 with two of the perforated-zinc strips 

 between. This was intended to cut off, 

 to a certain extent, communication be- 

 tween any super or brood-chamber, 

 which might be placed above this honey- 

 board, and the rest of the hive ; and to 

 discourage the storing of honey above it. 

 For a bee-escape to use in this honey- 

 board, I took a Hastings escape and cut 

 off the projecting ends of the perforated 

 tin, and then cut the escape entirely in 





The Lyman Bee-Escape Honey- Board. 



enough to let them out. Drones above 

 an excluder in the sections are a nui- 

 sance. 



In Mr. Dugdale's plan the brood which 

 hatches from the old brood-chamber be- 

 comes really a new colony, with a new 

 entrance to its hive, although it is in a 

 position to be easily united with the 

 swarm below. To obviate both of these 

 difficulties, and to keep all of the bees 

 at work in the one hive, it occurred to 

 me that I might use a modification of 

 the bee-escape and the queen-excluding 

 honey-board, in such a way as to let the 

 drones out of the front of the hive, 

 above the main entrance, while the 

 workers would be allowed to go directly 

 down into the boxes, or extracting 

 super, and thence to the brood-chamber 

 below. 



To accomplish this, I made a honey- 



two on, each side of the entrance hole on 

 the upper side, and also removed the 

 half circle of tin from the exit ends of 

 the escape, to give the springs more 

 room to play. This gave me two es- 

 capes from each one of the Hastings', 

 throuffh which the bees could pass hori- 

 zontally, instead of entering the escape 

 from above. 



I now placed one of these escapes in 

 the center of one end of the honey-board 

 by cutting away the rim enough to let 

 the exit end of the escape come out flush 

 with the outer surface ; and after put- 

 ting a small piece of wood (-^-inch 

 square, and as long as the escape) under 

 the perforated tin on each side of the 

 escape, I fastened both by nailing down 

 through. 



The bees could now pass directly 

 through the escape to the outside of the 



