840 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



springs placed side by side, and when 

 the question of escapes was raised, my 

 thoughts at once went back to my early 

 experiments, and I made an escape by 

 placing 8 springs side Zy side. I also 

 made some with a like number of little 

 metal gates, similar to Mr. Stead's. I 

 thought that there must be a big room 

 so the bees could get out quickly. On 

 trying, I was disappointed. The supers 

 were not cleaned of bees as I had ex- 

 pected, and I made some of only one- 

 half the size ; these worked better, but 

 were not satisfactory, and I kept on 

 decreasing the size, each lessening* of 

 the seeming capacity increasing their 

 practical value, and I resolved to make 

 one with a single spring, and so small 

 that hut one bee conld enter it at a time ; 

 and now, after three years' use, in com- 

 parison with all the noted escapes, I 

 know that it will do the work perfectly, 

 and more quickly than any escape that 

 allows several bees to enter at the same 

 time. In the Handy escape, each bee, 

 as it enters the escape, is compelled to 

 go ahead, as there is not room to even 

 turn around. 



After using this escape for 3 seasons, I 

 know that it will empty 3 or 4 supers, 

 all filled with bees, more quickly, and 

 with far greater certainty, than any es- 

 cape that makes a large opeiiing between 

 the super and brood-nest. 



I have proved by extended experi- 

 ments that the nearer the bees are cut 

 off from the brood-nest, the more anxi- 

 ous they are to get out, and the sooner 

 they will do so; and I here advise all 

 experimenters who are trying to invent 

 a wholesale escape, to waste no further 

 time, as the facts here stated, I am quite 

 certain, explain the nature of the case, 

 and will render all effort to evade them 

 unavailing; this natural condition being 

 that the nearer the bees in the super are 

 ,cut off from the brood-nest, the sooner 

 they will go out. 



Forestville, Minn. 



More About Bcan-Hoiiey Pro- 

 duction ill Caliroriiia. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY M. H. MENBLESON. 



Some time ago I received the follow- 

 ing communication from Wm. A. Pryal, 

 of North Temescal, Calif. : 



" I saw a clipping to-day, taken from 

 the ^''cnturi(tn, which connected your 

 name with a matter that I have taken 



some interest in since I was at the 

 World's Fair a little over a month ago. 

 It is in regard to bean honey. I wanted 

 to get some facts about such honey. 



"The last time I was in the California 

 building on the Fair grounds, I ran 

 across an exhibit of a bee-hive and a 

 quantity of rather fair-looking honey 

 from your county. A Dr. Archer was 

 the exhibitor. The honey was said to 

 have been gathered from the blossom of 

 the bean. This sort of honey was new 

 to me ; though I have seen beans in 

 greater or less quantities for years, I do 

 not remember ever having seen a bee on 

 one of the blossoms. Before I left Chi- 

 cago I called Mr. York's attention to 

 this erhibit — in fact, at that time it was 

 the only honey shown in said building. 

 Wm. a. Pkyal." 



Friend Pryal requested the informa- 

 tion through the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. 



My attention was drawn to the bean 

 honey a few years ago, by our congress- 

 man, Mr. Cannon. He has a beautiful 

 home out in the Santa Clara valley, 

 partly surrounded by hundreds of acres 

 of fruit trees, and thousands of acres of 

 the bean-fields. He caught many stray 

 swarms of bees, many of which I bought 

 from him, and of late years I have 

 bought all that he caught, by furnishing 

 the hives, etc. I noticed the honey from 

 these colonies was mostly of a superior 

 quality, of light color and good flavor. I 

 thought at the time that it was from 

 the fruit-bloom, but Mr, R. Wilkin and 

 others called my attention to the fact 

 that their bees had filled up from the 

 bean bloom, consequently I investigated 

 on a small scale, and Mr. Archer, a vear 

 later (1892), on a larger scale; 1892 

 was rather dry for the bean fields, and 

 a failure with the sages, still the experi- 

 ment proved that if they filled their 

 hives in a dry year, a wet season ought 

 to prove better, or give considerable 

 surplus. Mr. Archer had done well. 



A number of my friends wished to dis- 

 courage me from a further venture. This 

 season I have several hundred colonies 

 in various places in the heart of the 

 bean-fields, with good, portable extrac- 

 tor houses. The results I shall give at 

 the close of the season. 



One apiary of nearly 300 colonies I 

 moved 19 miles during nights, never 

 losing any time from the sumacs till 

 evening, to the bean-blossoms the next 

 morning. The majority of those colo- 

 nies were too strong for single story 

 hives, filling two stories. One week 



