THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



229 



alfalfa has failed to "give down." Red 

 clover has kept us alive. We did get a little 

 honey, but only from the strongest colonies 

 and such as we had doubled up. The best 

 single colony has not finished one super. 

 Three or four that were doubled and trebled 

 have finished a super each on an eight- 

 frame dovetailed hive. 



When dividing was iirst practiced, we 

 over did it ; will we now go to the other 

 extreme .'' 



By dequeeuing I have held together colo- 

 nies equal to two average colonies, and they 

 worked successfully in as many as iive or six 

 supers at once, but I want to know how to 

 do it with less labor. Friend Taylor, can't 

 we put our bees all in sliallow chambers, 

 and before the flow and swarming comes, 

 slip an excluder between the two chambers ; 

 then, eight or nine days later, the one 'tother 

 side from the queen will have only sealed 

 brood, can't build cells, you see, then use 

 one or two sealed brood chambers on the 

 old stand for the honey gatherers, and make a 

 new colony with the one having the queen ; 

 then, three or four days later, put a cell or a 

 virgin queen in the honey gathering colony 

 having the sealed brood ? If I live and get 

 a good year I shall try it. 



For extracted honey I am not sure which 

 would pay best, to make 10 colonies into 20 

 before the time for swarming ( shallow 

 brood chambers would be best), to hold the 10 

 together, or to run them as jive colonies. I 

 think likely the first plan would give the 

 best results in raising extracted honey, and 

 the last when comb is produced. 



Another problem for experiment is to get 

 200 more queens to do service where now 

 but 100 are used : say a queen to each shal- 

 low chamber or its equivalent, so instead of 

 pushing our queens, they, instead, will push, 

 and completely fill, each their chamber, 

 which means lots more workers. The 

 queens, not being over worked, will last 

 longer. A queen must do her best to get 

 enough workers to do good super work in a 

 summer flow. Even Doolittle robs his 

 weaker colonies to help oat the average 

 queens in getting enough bees. 



But to have these extra queens to use, 

 they must be wintered over, and how ? Or 

 they must be reared in April or May. This 

 is too expensive. Give me two queens 

 through the period of April 15th to .June 1.5th 

 and I will almost if not quite double my 

 surplus. 



The State, or a combination of apiarists, 

 could find out these things ; a bread and 



An experimental apiary ought to have 

 butter winner cannot, and men of compe- 

 tence do not care to — so we plod, 

 branches, that is, different locations. This 

 might be helped out somewhat by local api- 

 arists. The winter problem, the getting of 

 the workers in the spring, and the control of 

 them after they are gotten are the main 

 things to determine. Settle these, then we 

 can give our attention more to the " use and 

 abuse " of foundation and the like. 



Friend Dayton, when your bees get to 

 making the " splinters " fly after yoa have 

 some escapes under the supers, just lift the 

 cover and see how quickly they will take 

 wing in the open air. If the escape had a 

 big window before it so the bees could see 

 where it it is, how they would "git for it.' 

 But all is new and they are just crazy, and 

 they begin to gnaw at any crevice, and that's 

 the time they ought to be let out, and they 

 would yet out, too, if they knew how and 

 where and had a chance. It's one of two 

 things, or both, to find the queen, or get out 

 of prison. (I think the latter. — Ed.) 



Last year I made some cone escapes in 

 parts of old hives, then removed extracting 

 chambers and placed them on these entirely 

 away from the hives. Almost invariably, 

 15 to 20 minutes would put the bees into 

 a great excitement, and if they were all old 

 bees, one to two hours found them gone. 

 . Young bees would not leave so soon, and 

 would return if they did. Bees from a col- 

 ony that has been dequeened and all the 

 brood hatched, and all of the bees some 

 days old, leave verj' quickly. Bees in a col- 

 ony with a large proportion of very young 

 bees are slow in passing through our escape, 

 yet they will go in search of their queen 

 fairly well. Now, how can we help them out? 



LovELAND, Colo., July 27, 1893. 



[In the same mail that brought the fore- 

 going article came a letter and a sample bee 

 escape from Mr. R. .J. Stead, of Lanark, Ont., 

 Canada. The escape consists of a half a 

 dozen light gates made of metal and arrang- 

 ed side by side. If they were all raised at 

 one time it would furnish an opening % x 3 

 inches. The bees push against the gates, 

 which raise and let the bees pass out, then 

 they drop back by their own weight. I do 

 not know as there is any thing new in this 

 principle, but the escape is adjusted a little 

 differently from the fashionable escape of 



