



I'liliHsht M'eekly at IIH MiL-hligaa Street. 



Si'OO a Yeai — Sample C0P3- i'ree. 



37th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., MAY 13, 1897. 



No. 19. 



SEE 



Bee-Escapes and Entrance Feeders. 



BV S. A. DEACON. 



Your readers must ofteu be struck with, and beginners be 

 befogged by, the almost strange want of unanimity, amount- 

 ing in many cases to extreme difference of opinion, prevailing 

 amongst the score or so of experienced apiarists who so kindly 

 furnish replies to the leading questions — under "Question 

 Box" — concerning matters upon which one would hardly sup- 

 pose such divergence of opinion could possibly exist. Who 

 would Imagine, for instance, that there could be such totally 

 opposite views entertained by such men of large and varied 

 experience and close observation as, say, Dr. Miller, in the 

 States, and Samuel Simmins, in England, concerning the 

 utility of bee-escapes? On the one side they are lauded 

 sky-high, as one of the most welcome of ?noc?eni aids to honey- 

 production, while on the other we have so high an authority 

 as the author of " A Modern Bee-Farm" — one of England's 

 most experienced, observant and intelligent apiarists — con- 

 demning them in no measured terms ; saying on page 12!i of 

 the new edition of bis book: 



'• Some 15 years since they were much in vogue, but fell 

 into disuse, as practical bee-keepers found they preferred, 

 when once having raised the super, to clear it away at once ; 

 and it is not a little surprising to find several advanced apia- 

 rists themselves entrapt into thinking there is anything to be 

 gained by re-adopting this old and discarded fad !" 



And again, on page 139, Mr. Simmins says: "One of 

 the most forcible arguments that can be used in condemnation 

 of super-clearers is, that the bees, once frightened by the lift- 

 ing of the super, will not hesitate to break countless pin-holes 

 in the beautiful cappings." 



This is very emphatic and decided language, and must 

 necessarily " give us pause" — or, at least, should do those 

 who are not yet provided with bee-escapes — ere we conclude 

 to make another entry on the wrong side of our ledgers. Are 

 super-clearers, then, as great a boon and as indispensable an 

 addition to the bee-keeper's already too numerous traps, as 

 many would have us to believe ? or are they unduly crackt up 

 and destioed soon again to become "an old and discarded 

 fad?" 



AN ENTHASCE FEEDER DESCRIBED. 



Mr. R. C. Aikin, In one of his Presidential addresses at 

 the Colorado convention, said : " We should be as willing to 

 give as to receive." Certainly 1 Will Mr. Boardman, acting 

 on this suggestion, kindly detail the construction of his en- 

 trance feeder ? and concerning which Editor Root made the 

 unaccountably strange statement in Gleanings, that he " lic- 

 licved it unnecessdry to expUiln this feeder." The same article, 

 accompanied with a miniature wood-cut of the feeder, was re- 

 produced in the Bee Journal April 23, 1896. On page 301 



(1895), there aUo appears a small paragraph about it, most 

 tantalizingly lacking any information concerning its mode of 

 construction. Why this reserve ? An entrance feeder is by far 

 the most satisfactory kind of feeder there is. With it there is 

 no necessity for lifting off shade boards and covers, and so ex- 

 asperating the bees, whilst a mere glance up and down the 

 rows shows at once where feeders require replenishing and 

 where not. Further, an entrance feeder is delightfully simple 

 and easy of construction. Were these facts more widely 

 known, and directions for their make given in one or two 

 leading bee-papers, I feel certain that all other methods of 

 feeding would soon be discarded. With your permission, then, 

 I will describe an entrance feeder which I myself am using, 

 and which probably, in the main, differs very little from that 

 of Mr. Boardman ; for the principle is necessarily the same, 

 tho they may differ in some minor details : 



Into a 2-inch section (or 1% may do as well) tack a bot- 

 tom, made thus : Take 3 pieces of stuff 3^-inch square 

 (Fig. 2) for the frame of said bottom, and complete It 

 by tacking 2 pieces of 2-inch section over this frame. First 

 cut the side pieces away }i, as shown in Fig. 1, so that all 

 comes flush. Also cut away )« on the top side of the project- 



ing horns, or else they won't fit into the % entrance. Before 

 tacking this bottom in the section, tack a piece of wire gauze 

 over the upper surface, as shown in Fig. 2, and a little block 

 or bit of cork at B to support it, so that It don't sag. The lid, 

 or top. Is of ?^-inch stuff tackt also inside the section. It has 

 a hole to admit a metal screw-cap fruit-jar. Cut out the cen- 

 ter of the metal cap, leaving only ,'4 -inch rim, or ledge. Cut 

 2 discs of cheese-cloth to fit snugly Inside this, first pouring a 



