MAY 1, 1916 



GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE 



FREEING SUPERS OF BEES IN OUT-APIARIES 



A Quick Plan that does not Require Shaking, Brushing, nor the Use of Bee- 

 escapes 



BY J. A. GREEN 



One of the most important operations to 

 the beekeeper under any circumstances, but 

 more especially to the one who keeps his 

 bees ill out-apiaries, is getting the bees off 

 the honey. The time-honored method of 

 smoking and brushing is still followed by 

 many, especially among producers of ex- 

 tracted honey. Comb honey is likely to be 

 injured by this method, especially when hon- 

 ey is not coming in plentifully, or with some 

 strains of bees which begin to uncap the 

 honey as soon as the hive is disturbed. Most 

 beekeepers now use the bee-escape, wliich 

 has been one of the most useful inventions 

 ever presented to the beekeeping world. Es- 

 pecially to the keeper of bees in out-api- 

 aries has the bee-escape been invaluable. 

 Except to the one who takes an extracting- 

 outfit to the outyard and shakes or brushes 

 the bees off the combs, the bee-escape has 

 been all but indispensable. 



The escape has its drawbacks at all times, 

 particularly for use away from home. 

 First there is the danger that it may become 

 clogged with dead bees, fragments of comb 

 or other refuse, so that the bees cannot 

 leave the super. This may result in nothing 

 worse than having the work to do over 

 again, though I have known bees to be suf- 

 focated and honey injured in a super over 

 such an escape. A board containing more 

 than one escape is, of course, much less 

 dangerous. 



Then there is the danger of robbers get- 

 ting into the super and carrying off or dam- 

 aging the honey. There are few hives or 

 supei*s which have been in use a number of 

 years (some of mine are thirty years old) 

 that are not liable to have openings or 

 cracks when they are piled one on another. 

 Danger from this source may be avoided to 

 some extent by plastering over all suspi- 

 cious places with mud after the escape is in 

 place. But even this cannot be depended 

 on long in Colorado, where the continued 

 presence of bees in a hive is necessai'y to 

 keep joints tight. If we place an escape 

 under a super, being careful not to lift the 

 cover or disturb the sealing, that cover will 

 often begin to crack loose and warp as soon 

 as the bees are out of the super, and in a 



day or two there will be a crack tlmi 

 which bees can enter. 



One of the worst faults of the bee-escape 

 method for out-apiary use is that two trips 

 are often necessary to take off a lot of 

 honey, as it usually requires from 24 to 48 

 hours to get all the bees out in this way. 

 Another bad fault for the extraeted-honey 

 producer is that the honey above an escape- 

 board becomes too cold to extract well soon 

 after the bees have left it. In Colorado, 

 with our cool nights and very thick honey, 

 bee-escapes are not very practicable for 

 honey to be extracted, unless the honey is to 

 be warmed up after taking home. The 

 wire-cloth escape-boards that have been 

 recommended for this do not suffice to keep 

 the honey warm here. 



Lastly, there is the danger that thieves 

 who have learned what a bee-escape is for 

 may carrj' off the honey over escapes before 

 the owner gets back to it. 



I am going to tell you of a better plan 

 than using bee-escapes; but first I want to 

 recite a little ancient histoi-y. When John 

 Reese first m.ade public in Gleanings, some 

 years ago, his invention of the bee-escape, 

 it attracted little attention. I think it Avas a 

 year or more afterward when, noticing that 

 no further mention of it had been made, I 

 wrote an article for Gleanings, calling the 

 attention of beekeepers to the fact that they 

 were overlooking an invention that T had 

 found practical and valuable. A short time 

 after this was published, I met, in Chicago, 

 James Heddon, whom old-timers will re- 

 member as one of the brightest men wlio 

 ever kept bees. Said he to me, " Green, you 

 ought never to have written that article. 

 Reese's descriiDtion of his bee-escape fell 

 perfectly flat. I don't suppose there were a 

 dozen men in the United States who ever 

 tried it, and none of them said anything 

 about it. It is a big tiling; but such things 

 ought to be kept in tlie hands of the special- 

 ists, wlio can appreciate their value. You 

 have stirred it up again, and it will likely 

 come into common use, which will be bad 

 for the professional." 



T will not discuss now his position in re- 

 gard to new ideas, which is not altogether 



