THE AMERICAN BEE-K VEPER. 



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But little need be said concerning 

 the utility of a practical bee escape 

 for removing comb honey from the 

 hives- Any bee-keeper who has gone 

 through the vexations of removing 

 his comb honey from the hives during 

 a honey dearth will agree with me 

 that it is any thing but a pleasant 

 task ; while with a practical escape 

 the vexations are all removed— no 

 brushing, no shaking of bees, no rob- 

 bing, and no bees in the honey-house. 

 The escape-boards can be adjusted at 

 any time of day, and is done so quick- 

 ly that the robber bees have no chance 

 to get a start. The supers can be 

 taken off at the bee-keeper's leisure 

 after the bees have deserted them, 

 which is usually from five to eight 

 hours Many of my supers were 

 carried in early in the morning, with- 

 out hat or veil, while the good wife 

 was setting the breakfast. 



Concerning the inventors and man- 

 ufacturers, R and E C. Porter, of 

 Lewistown, Ills , of the Porter spring 

 escape, I will say, that, so far as I 

 have been able to learn, they are the 

 oldest practical bee-keepers in this 

 part of Illinois. At present they do 

 not keep a very large apiary, only 

 some 60 or 80 colonies, on account of 

 so many bees near them In 1882 

 they obtained between 9000 and 10000 

 lbs of extracted honey from about SO 

 colonies. In 1886 they obtained 10,000 

 from about the same number of colo- 

 nies. 



Their escapes have been as thor- 

 oughly tested as one season's work 

 can test them, and they are well 

 enough pleased with them to raaiiu- 

 fscture several thousand of them, and 

 I presume they will advertise and put 

 tnem on the market at once. 



s. a. Shuck. 



Liverpool, III., April 9. 



[Many thanks for your valuable art- 

 cle. We, too, have been experiment- 



ing with differint styles of bee-es- 

 capes; but none do the work so per- 

 fectly as the Porter, illustrated above. 

 It would get every bee out of the up- 

 per story, even off combs of brood. 

 With the Reese and Dibbern escapes, a 

 few bees would be left, they having 

 evidently found their wa) back; and 

 one*' or twice we found them clogged 

 with dead bees. We have just re- 

 ceived a few samples of the Porter 

 escape. They are beautifully made. 

 and the price is moderate. If this 

 escape shall do as well as it has done 

 for you and ourselves, the two Port- 

 ers deserve a vote of thanks for a per- 

 fect bee escape, and the right of ex- 

 clusive manufacture, whether they 

 have a patent on the same or not. We 

 presume a good many of them will be 

 sold, and we should like to have re- 

 ports of where thorough tests have 

 been made. The propolizing feature 

 of the Reese and Dibbern, as well as 

 their occasional clogging with dead 

 bees, is rather against them. The two 

 brass springs at the point D, in they 

 Porter, are so exceedingly sensitive, 

 that, if a bee were to touch them with 

 its manibles, I imagine they would 

 tremble so that the little propolizer 

 would become cross-eyed in trying to 

 keep track of the oscillations, and 

 give the mattei up in disgust. 



E. R R. 



Don't spray the fruit trees while in 

 bloom; it is but time and material 

 wasted, and may kill your own or 

 your neighbor's bees. 



If you expect to produce hone} 

 market, be sure to have 'it in nice 

 shape. This means new sections, comb 

 foundation, separators, and new, clean 

 shipping cases to pack it in, The 

 time for the old style of kee-keeping 

 to pay has passed, never to return. 



