(JLEANINCiS IN BEE CULTURE. 



.Ian. 1. 



Hasty doesn't agree with Alley, that in 

 second swarming there's no queen in the hive 

 out of the cell "till the rnonieiit the swarm 

 issues." In old times, piping was always heard 

 the evening before a second swarm, and the 

 piping queen was always out of the cell. 



Scu(ENFEi>D, the eminent (German, declares 

 the poison-gland a vital organ, secreting formic 

 acid from the blood, and that formic acid finds 

 its way from the blood through the walls of the 

 honey-sac into the honey. He says the sting 

 has nothing to do with putting acid into honey. 



The " woknoutnkss" of the wintering prob- 

 lem may make it desirable lo bury decently that 

 venerable problem; but the wornoutness of 

 some colonies, and the gone-upness of others 

 every spring make an annual resurrection of 

 the hoary problem not altogether undesirable. 



CoRNEii. AND 81.MMINS. of Canada and Eng- 

 land, are having a set-to in the A. B. J., as to 

 the spontaneous origin of foul brood, Simmins 

 affirming. Cornell denying. Two good men. It 

 will haidly turn out that a crop of any kind 

 can be raised without sei'd from some source. 



How CAN I please every one? I've written 

 " Saint Joseph " to pacify Bro. Abbott, and now 

 comes an Iowa man filling out the description 

 of the "Saint"-ed city by calling it "a city 

 where they licensed gambling on their fair- 

 grounds and ran ':>i\ gambiing- tables," and had 

 a saloon that ran (i5 bar-keepers coatless and 

 sweating, with people gathering 100 deep at 

 the saloon between horse-races, which ran 7 in 

 an afternoon, with pools sold on all the races, 

 and he wants me to call it Holy vSaint Joseph! 



USING BEE-ESCAPES. 



HOW TO ri'T on; how PHKY save I.AB(>K.\N1) 



KOHUKIIS; AN KXCKLLKNT KKTOKr 



KOK UKK-ESCAl'ES. 



In my work I have been testing escapes more 

 and less, sometimes to the number of thirty or 

 forty; and to say th(>,y are advantageous always 

 would not be my bi^lief, but yet I think them a 

 decidedly useful implement. It is not the 

 trouble of putting them on that is an obj(>ction, 

 nor taking them off: in fact, if we work as fast 

 as we can, thn time amounts to nearly ^iqthing. 

 8ixty to one hundred per hour could be i)Ut on 

 by a little practice. They can be put on at any 

 time, but probably the best time is in the even- 

 ing, and wheel the upper stories into the 

 extracting-room the next morning, utilizing the 

 cool of the (evening and morning when it is 

 pleasant and invigorating to work— while Mr. 

 France is riding to and from the apiary— too 

 late and too early to brush bees from combs. 

 The only fault I could ever find with garden- 

 ing was that the mornings and evenings were 

 too short. 



It Is impossible to go to the apiary, put on 



the escapes, and extract the honey on the same 

 day. because the bees will not be out until in 

 the afternoon. Our present forms of escapes (I 

 use the Porter) do not seem to work fast enough, 

 but we may never get any that will do better 

 than the present forms. 



To put the escape-board inider. the upper 

 upper story does not need to be lifted off. Sim- 

 ply pry up the rear end of it about six inches 

 with the left hand. A chisel may be necessary 

 to start it. As soon as it starts, begin ;o blow 

 in, across the brood -frames, smoke from the 

 smoker held in the right hand, on the right side 

 of the hive as you stand in the rear. Sharp 

 blasts in the narrow crevice will pass clear 

 across. Do not look to see if the bees run; if 

 you have smoked bees a thousand times or more 

 you may know that every bee will get out of 

 the way as soon as possible. When the edge of 

 the hive is up six inches, put your left knee 

 against the edge, to hold it there while the 

 hand goes over to catch the front hand-holi'. 

 and raise that end of the story about a foot, 

 and swing it around to the left, using the knee 

 for a pivot. By this time the right hand has 

 set the smoker down and brought the escape- 

 board up. and lays it on the top of the brood- 

 chamber. Escape-boards are light. One hand 

 can handle them by the rim and lay one down 

 carefully to avoid killing bees. Then both 

 hands are free to ease the upper story down on 

 to it. This is only the fraction of a minute, but 

 it takes as large a fraction to get lo the next 

 hive, and another to straighten the back after 

 the bending position. Rheumatics straighten 

 up very slowly sometimes. No pans of water 

 are needed, nor honey-daubed brushes t,o stick 

 to every bee they strike — no hand kerchief •< to 

 arrest the drops of perspiration that chase each 

 other ofT the end of the nose into the hives, nor 

 aching lingers from grasping slippery projecting 

 arms while plying the brush. 



Brushing bees hurriedly from the combs, with 

 old Sol looking straight down at you in the 

 confined air of a veil, is like feeding a thrash- 

 ing-machine or liring an engine. The feeder 

 steps out from his machine, the fireman from 

 his cab. and apiarists seek the shade of a tree 

 or building while they mop away the sweat 

 and secure a ree breath of cool air. 



The principal fault I have found in escapes 

 is, where only one upper story is used it 

 keeps all the bees from work about six hours 

 while they are getting through the escape, or 

 else we need a six-hour supply of empty combs 

 and stories to begin work with; but where two 

 extracting-stories are used, one could always 

 be left on. I used two stories, but expect, an- 

 other season, to use three. 



Brace-combs may trouble where narrower 

 frame material thfin IjV is used in either top or 

 bottom bars. Still again, there is about one 

 colony in twenty that persists in their construc- 

 tion, and needs a change of queens. 



