420 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bee-Escapes and their Use. 



The subject of bee-escapes was next 

 discussed. 



Mr. Martin stated that he used the 

 " Porter bee-escape," and is very much 

 pleased with its working. He said: 

 " That tiresome job of getting bees out 

 of cases at the close of the honey season 

 especially, is made to be nothing but 

 fun. You place the board containing 

 the escape under the cases ; leave it 

 there— on the hive, remember — several 

 days, or weeks if desired, then take off 

 these cases, and you will find scarcely a 

 bee left in them, as a rule, and the sec- 

 tions are seldom soiled at all." 



Straight Brood-Combs Without Foun- 

 dation. 



"Is there any way we can get nice, 

 straight combs in the brood-chamber 

 without using foundation ?" was next 

 asked. 



Many could get straight combs by 

 merely using "starters," and were con- 

 fident that they could get a better yield 

 of white surplus by so doing ; but they 

 had more drone-comb to contend with. 



Queen-Excluders. 



The merits of the queen-excluder were 

 also discussed. It was unanimously de- 

 cided to be a splendid invention, es- 

 pecially to keep the queen from laying 

 ing in the sections aiid extracting supers; 

 but also to confine the drones to the 

 more narrow limits of the brood-cham- 

 ber, where there numbers could be more 

 accurately estimated by the workers, 

 and, consequently, as it was believed, 

 tolerated and reared in less numbers. 



Equalizing Brood in the Spring. 



The following, and last general dis- 

 cussion, was upon a subject of universal 

 importance among apiarists, viz: "Shall 

 we equalize the brood in tlie Hpriiig be- 

 tween the weak and strong coloiiicis for 

 the purpose of building all up equally 

 strong for the honey flow ?" 



" No," was the general answer to this 

 (luestioi), because it is drawing on our 

 strongest and best colonies to promote 

 tilt! welfare of those which, only too 

 often, are unworthy of our attention ; 

 and our time; and labor arc e.\pend(Ml lor 

 naught but, it may be, to lengtlien the 

 (lays of an unprolific queen. 



C. W. WilUins had practiced, with 

 good results, changing the hive of a 

 swarm that had just Issued, with tliat of 

 a w(!ak colony. The queens' wings being 

 clipped, of course the one from the 



issuing swarm was easily secured, and 

 the one from the weak colony could be 

 easily found, as the number of bees was 

 small. The queens were introduced to 

 their respective colonies again by simply 

 placing them on top of the brood-frames 

 or cases, if on, underneath the burlap, 

 still leaving them confined in their 

 cages for perhaps 24 hours. If the 

 queen from the weak colony was 

 thought to be unprofitable to retain, 

 she was destroyed, and a frame from 

 some other hive containing two queen- 

 cells, capped if possible, were placed in 

 her stead, after her loss was appreciated 

 by the colony. 



This proves to be a very efficient and 

 economical method of equalizing and re- 

 queening at the same time. This pro- 

 gramme is not followed, of course, later 

 than June 20, in this locality, so that is 

 about the time we wish to commence 

 saving swarms, and we calculate that all 

 our weak colonies, by that time, will 

 have outgrown assistance, through nat- 

 ural growth and external help. 



The convention adjourned to meet at 

 President Kinney's some time in May, at 

 the call of the Secretary, to examine his 

 apiary and fixtures, and also to enjoy a 

 social chat about bees and their man- 

 agement. C. W. WiLKiNS, Sec. 



Mm Queens— Mistaken Ileas. 



.T. W. TEPFT. 



It was Socrates, I believe, who once 

 remarked that all we know is nothing to 

 what can be known. But if the wise old 

 Grecian had lived in these modern days, 

 he would have been forced to admit that 

 at least some bee-keepers know a good 

 deal more than others. 



Now-a-days no bee-keeper knows his 

 science or his art completely until he has 

 learned what all specialists in bee-keep- 

 ing have learned, besides what his own 

 specialty may be able to tiuich him. 



Apiarian knowledge must be gained 

 by oursevelses — others may supply us 

 with facts, but even the rc^sults, if they 

 agree with the previous ones, must be 

 the result of our own experience. 



In queen-bee rearing, I have discov- 

 ered this fact, viz. : A queen reared in a 

 colony or a nucleus where there are no 

 drones at the time of the formation of 

 the queen-cell, is a worthless queen, 

 compared with a queen reared where 

 there are drones at tiie time of the 

 formation of the queen-cell, 



