PUBLISHED EVERY WEEK 



AT $1.00 PER ANNUM. 



35th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JUNE 13, 1895. 



No. 24. 



Cot;)tnbuted /V^ticles* 



On Important x\.T>iarlan SufyJ&ots, 



Operating and Operation of Bee-Escapes. 



BY C. W. DAYTON. 



The past season [1894] I used four different kinds of es- 

 capes in removing 6,000 pounds of comb and extracted honey. 

 Also several colonies were kept busy going through escapes 

 from May to October, and it has become my opinion that the 

 escapes so far brought to notice are no more than stepping- 

 stones to the finally perfected implement. 



That escapes are an advantage is not theory vi^ith me, for 

 throughout the season of lS9-i I kept an apiary of over 100 

 colonies within 54 feet of a much traveled highway to the 

 city of Los Angeles. To open a hive and brush bees from the 

 combs of one colony would send angry bees after teams and 

 people to an extent as to block the passage. Escapes, on the 

 other hand, prevented a single molestation, and where the 

 presence of bees were looked upon as a terror, a friendly dis- 

 position was gained for them. 



In experimenting with escapes the bees of some colonies 

 go out sooner than others. And the stampeding disposition 

 was discovered, and can be demonstrated as a fact in three 

 hours' time. 



In using the Porter escape I began to study into the rea- 

 son for having the channel of double bee-space depth. Then 

 after a bee gets down into the channel and is about to pro- 

 ceed toward the springs, it must ascend an elevation in the 

 floor. Under the elevated portion is an opening as if pre- 

 pared for the deception of bees seeking a route to get back 

 into the super. At the side of the elevated portion of the floor 

 are openings as if to admit the passage of air. This elevated 

 portion is a hindrance to stampeding bees. Then the round 

 entrance to the channel has a wide, downward projection that 

 would be sure to interfere with the passage of bees crowding 

 through the channel. 



As a rule, the first bees to try the springs seldom go 

 through until they return to inspect every other part of the 

 escape and escape-board. They don't want to go out of the 

 super, but the depth of the rear part of the channel and 

 flanged aperture prevents their going back into the super, and 

 they are consequently forced to travel onward through the 

 springs. The number of bees trapped thus are a very small 

 number compared to the whole super full. They are of a 

 meddlesome disposition, and do not know that they are sep- 

 arated from the queen. To construct a trap for these is im- 

 practical. After awhile a few of the clustered bees come 

 down upon the escape-board. They do not become meddle- 

 some or vicious, but search diligently for an exit. Whether it 

 is these bees or the first mentioned which nibble at the joints 

 of the escape-board and super, I am uncertain. I shall make 

 an efifort to find out as soon as the next honey season opens. 

 As soon as one of these earnest bees discovers the way to the 

 brood-nest it fans. Other earnest bees are attracted, and 

 form in lines of rapidly increasing number. 



Often have I held the Porter escape in ray hands and 

 wished for an explanation of every turn which its construction 

 involved. It was the failure of the Porters to do this which 

 caused my experimenting and philosophizing, and I produced 

 the Stampede, not to sell and use, but to illustrate the princi- 



ple of a wider exit and going-toward-the-light. This going- 

 toward-the-light is a very valuable idea when properly ap- 

 plied. It is by the use of light that I hope to stop the gnaw- 

 ing of the bees at the joints of the hives. And it is because of 

 this gnawing which calls into necessity more than one escape 

 to the board. For example, if the escape is adjusted in one 

 edge of the escape-board — say, in the front edge — there may 

 be so many bees clustered below the combs that light through 

 the escape cannot shine to all parts of it. This would cause 



Hon. Christoplier Orimrn. — See pcuje 380. 



those bees distant from that light to attack crevices nearest to 

 them. 



I believe the perfected escape will admit light and con- 

 tain a trap, which trap may be a spring, but there will be no 

 enclosed channel. When bees proceed in a horizontal direc- 

 tion, turn an angle, and then continue their journey to reach 

 the brood-chamber, energy is wasted to an equal extent that 

 draft is wasted by an elbow in a pipe to the stove. 



Florence, Calif. 



How to Prevent Swarming. 



BY JOHN WELCH, JE. 



To the apiarist whose chief object is the production of 

 honey, the prevention of increase by natural swarming be- 

 comes a serious problem, which is not satisfactorily solved by 



