870 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1.'). 



to help him in those accomplishments. I put 

 but little faith in his assertion, and in like man- 

 ner whether the A. B. J. correspondent does 

 his writing himself or by proxy. I don't be- 

 lieve his assertion. I don't believe bees ever 

 get fat or poor. 



M I ^ 



THE STAMPEDE BEE-ESCAPE, 



BuC. ir. Dautdii. 



[The following is from th^i Bee-keepers' Review 

 for September. My own comments appear at 

 the end.— Ed.] 



Friend H.:— I send you by this mail a model of 

 my bee-escape. No. 1 is a section of the escape- 

 board proper. No. 2 is a g-ate of wire cloth liing-ed 

 at its upper edge, and under which the bees pass 

 in their efforts to reach the opening- (4). toward 

 which they are drawn by tlie light coming in. By 

 the time they reach the screen through which the 

 light comes, they discover a more satisfactory 

 route (No. 3) to the brood-nest. No. 5 Is the raised 

 rim around the escape-board. No. 6 is the esciape 

 proper, made of tin, a portion of which is cut away 

 to show openings 3 and 4. 



THE STAMPEDE 15EEES(A1»E. 



The escape rests on the t(jp side of tlie escape- 

 board, instead of being let down into it. This ren- 

 ders the screened window discernible from all 

 points of the board, however distant. In my exper- 

 iments I have found that they go through the es- 

 cape rather than an open outside exit. In the 

 case of an outside exit the first uneasy bees, after 

 coming to the outside, return inside again, and it is 

 not until they become vviy uneasy that tliey dare 

 take wing or course down to the entrance on the 

 outside surface of super and hive. The first at- 

 tempt to reach the window results in such bee be- 

 ing tiuiipnl out of the super, and obliged to proceed 

 toward the brood-chamber. Thus in this escape it 

 is iiap lirst and strai ge passage afterwaid, instead 

 of strange passage first and trap last. After secur- 

 ing it to the board, adjust the points of wires so as 

 to nearly admit a bee by bending a wire, at the rear 

 part of tlie gate, against the roof. As the floor is 

 uneven it makes no difference if returning bees 

 climb on top of the gate. I have cleared 200 supers 

 this season with this escape. 



Having the exit partially open is the turning- 

 point in the success or failure of all escapes, and in 

 the neglect of which many cast escapes aside. If 

 you wish tlie escape to operate very tine, ravel out 

 front lateral wii-es to within two wires of spindle 

 wire. It requires about as much experience to op- 

 erate escapes as it does in the spreading of brood. 

 An escape with a window to admit outside light 

 will operate the liest from morning until about 

 three or four o'clock in the afternoon. But toward 



nightfall, bees will retreat from the light, so that,, 

 to do the most rapid work, the exit ought to be- 

 farthest from the window. This i)oint was sug- 

 gested and found true from the hiving of swarms- 

 with a lantern or by moonlight. If the empty hive 

 be placed on the moon side, as the bees are placed 

 before it, they do well if they do not leave it entire- 

 ly and retreat away toward the darkness. Place- 

 the hive on the dark side, and they retreat from 

 the moon light into it. So the moon exerts an in- 

 fluence on the hiving of bees, and. possibly, the 

 operation of escapes, so to say. 



With the gate at tlie inside end of inclosed dark 

 passage, robbers will not be caught. Tliis season, 

 even in the height of the harvest, I found a band of 

 robbers prying around supers after the bees went 

 out. I removed the super, but allowed escape and 

 board to remain on the hive. When a robber ap- 

 proached tlie gate, and, seeing tlie light at the other 

 end, it thoufiht it had discovered plunder, and in- 

 stantly jumped under gate. Result, dead robbers 

 dragged out at entrance of hive below. 



Oil. yes ! my advertisement states that 1010 bees 

 per minute may go through. These are three inches 

 long, agate on each side of the auger-hole. The- 

 cap:icity of escape I send is .500 to 700. After ad- 

 justing escape, spread carbolized cloth (prepared 

 a la Woodley) over top of frames, and put cover- 

 down upon it. They will stum^ede. 



Florence, Cal. C. W. Dayton. 



[Mr. Dayton's escape, theoretically, looks 

 like a good one. It combines very nicely the 

 flood-gate principle of the old original that Mr. 

 Pouder introduced some ten or twelve years 

 ago, and the going-toward-the-light idea of the- 

 Boa»'dman, also introduced at an early date. 

 The first mentioned consisted of a sort of gate, 

 or rake, the teeth of which were common pins, 

 the whole hinged at the top so that the bees 

 could pass under the pin-points one way but not 

 the other. Mr. Boardmaii, as some of our 

 readers know, has long used a cone bee-escape; 

 but instead of having it placed between the 

 super and brood chamber, he insists that the 

 proper place is in front of the super on the out- 

 side, and just over the lilve-en trance. The 

 bees go toward the light, pass outdoors, and. if 

 there are any young bees, they will crawl down 

 the hive-front into the entrance. As thus situ- 

 ated, Mr. Boardman claims that it is much 

 more rapid in its operation. In the mainte- 

 nance of this position he has stood practically 

 alone. But Mr. Dayton, independently and 

 without this knowledge, as I judge, of Board- 

 man's escape, or, rather, its position, has gotten 

 hold of the same idea (toward the light) and so. 

 arranged the escape that it lets the bees into 

 the hive. Occasionally robbers, Mr. Boardman 

 says, would bother the outside escapes. 



i should like to see reports from others who- 

 may have tried the Dayton, as to how fast it 

 works compared to others. — Ed.] 



SASSAFBAS AS A VEEMIFUGE. 



WILI- IT KEEP ANTS AWAY FHOM HONEY, ETC.?" 



By A. P. ir. 



Some years ago I dried a (inantity of straw- 

 berries in sugar, and, after putting them away 

 with the greatest care, my disgust was extreme 

 when, upon opening them, I found worms here 

 and there among them. At first, I regarded the 

 case as hopeless; but having seen it asserted,. 



