GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Egypt; 3d, C. H. Root, Red Bank; 4tb, W. 

 Garrabant. Wax, 1st, E. G. Carr; 2d, C. 

 H. Root. 



Twice each day extracting was demon- 

 strated, and attracted much attention. AVe 

 believe this did much to remove the preju- 

 dice found against extracted honey by those 

 who probably had never sampled any thing 

 but a very poor box-hive product, as many 

 expressed surprise when given a taste from 

 the extractor. 



Before the extracting demonstration, a 

 short sketch w^as given of the development 

 of honey-production from the time it was 

 gathered from the rocks and hollow trees to 



the present, illustrated by a straw skep, box 

 hive, and a modern frame hive. 



Each evening handling live bees in a cage 

 was demonstrated by the writer; but it 

 cannot be said this had any value except to 

 attract the crowd and give the attendants an 

 opportunity to call their attention to honev 

 and give them some facts regarding its food 

 value. 



About 1000 lbs. of honey was on display, 

 together with apiarian utensils. 



The illustration gives some idea of the 

 exliibit, but, of course, does not show the 

 honey well. 



New Egypt, N. J. 



FREEING COMBS OF BEES; 



^ME = CLOTH ESCAPE ■■ FRAME : 

 ER 



A BEE 



BY ARTHUR F. HODGSON 



Freeing supers of bees is a vital question 

 to all large producers of either comb or 

 extracted honey, and one which will permit 

 of careful study. Blowing bees otf the combs 

 one super at a time, and delivering them 

 to the front of the hive from which they 

 were taken, is possible, as I will illustrate; 



T1 





AN ABANDONED IDEA. 



A blower constructed for the purpose of freeing 

 supers of bees. 



yet I unhesitatingly pronounce the method 

 wrong, and strongly advocate the use of my 

 screen-cloth escape-board as given in 

 Gleanings for Aug. 15, 1913. 



In the season of 1908 I made and used a 

 hand-power bee-blower. The accompanying- 

 photograph gives some idea of the construc- 

 tion of the machine. Being mounted on a 

 truck it is easily moved from hive to hive. 

 To operate, the blower is placed in front of 

 hive. A super is removed and set in place 

 on the machine. The hood is swung in posi- 

 tion above the super, which now becomes an 

 air-tight box except for the exit, the air- 

 inlet for the present being closed. The 

 crank is now turned until sufficient speed is 

 developed, when the air is allowed to pass 

 through the super of combs, the bees being 

 dislodged by the sudden blast. A series of 

 spreaders and conductors are arranged in 

 the hood of the machine to direct the air 

 uniformly between the combs. The air must 

 pass through the super very suddenly and 

 with great force, otherwise the bees become 

 prepared and hang on until they are prac- 

 tically torn off. Without going into detail, 

 this is the description and action of the 

 blower. Others may see improvements and 

 take up with this method. However, I con- 

 sider it entirely too mechanical and too 

 unnatural to become practical. 



This caused me to experiment along an- 

 other line, with the result that I discovered 

 screen-wire escajDe-frames to be the best and 

 most agreeable inducement in causing bees 

 to leave their combs. Why this violent 

 treatment when the same result can be ob- 

 tained peacefully through the earnest desire 

 of the bees themselves? 



Jarvis, Out., Canada. 



