158 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



new super should bo given at the time that 

 the escape is put in place, as this gives room 

 for the bees to "escape" into. 



Queen excluders are almost a necessity if 

 bee escapes are to be used; that is, if the 

 management is such that the queen is likely 

 to invade the supers. 



The escape is fitted into a thin board (3^ 

 inch) that is the size of the top of the hive. 

 With the ordinary hives in use, a rim, bee- 

 space in height, is tacked to the upper edge 

 of the board. This arrangement leaves a 

 bee space both above and below the board. 

 The super from which it is desired to remove 

 the bees is slightly raised, a puff of smoke 

 driven in, then the escape-board slipped in 

 and the work is done. In a few hours the 

 super will be free from bees. Two men 

 ought to place escapes in position at the rate 

 of four a minute. It is said that smoking 

 the bees down out of a super as much as pos- 

 sible before putting the escape in place 

 greatly hastens the escape of the bees. 



As I have never used the escapes, I cannot 

 go on and give in detail all the little points 

 of management, hence must trust to corres- 

 poidents to do this, and in the July Review 

 will be published what they say. 



eXT'RTXCXED. 



Bright Yellow Bnes. 



Mr. W. J. Ellison writes me as follows: 

 "I have several colonies of five-banded bees, 

 and if they don't do better another season, 

 they will have to take the next seat lower. I 

 like their beautiful color, and their queens 

 take better every tim e than the dark ones. 

 I believe some people would rather have them 

 for their color, even if they had to put up 

 with other deficiences. I wish you could 

 have seen some of the queens I sent out last 

 month, during swarming, that were reared 

 from these yellow bees. They surpassed 

 evrcytliirxj for beauty, and the question now 

 is, shall we raise these queens, because they 

 please our customers, even though we feel 

 we have their sujieriors in the three-banded 

 bees?" 



If you write to your customers, friend 

 Ellison, just as you have written to me, I 

 think it all right to sell them the yellow bees. 

 Several times have these bright yellow bees 

 been brought before the public, but they 



have never seemed to stay a great while. 

 Just now they are being boomed as never 

 before and it may be well to give them a 

 little consideration. / have never had 

 enough of them to give them a reliable test 

 as regards their honey gathering qualities, 

 but s^me men in whom I have confidence 

 have given good reports in regard to them. 

 My own opinion in the matter is that there 

 are different strains of them, varying in 

 character, the same as is the case with the 

 ordinary three-banded Italians or with the 

 black bees. I think the difficulty is just 

 here: when a man begins to breed for color, 

 he is likely to neglect other qualities. The 

 brightest bees are continually selected 

 to breed from, regardless of whether or not 

 they are good workers. I know that these 

 bright yellow bees are very beautiful and 

 very gentle, and they are not iiecessarially 

 poor woikers. As to their purity as Italians, 

 I am in accord with Mr. Doolittle as he ex- 

 I>resses his views in the Missouri Bee Keep- 

 er. In reply to the query: "Can Italian V)ees 

 have more than three yellow bands?" he 

 says: — 



"They can not only have three bands, but 

 they can have six in a few years, if the im- 

 provement as to color should continue as 

 great during the next ten years as it has dur- 

 ing the past decade. Not only can they 

 show what is termed six yellow bands, but 

 the abdomen can become a solid yellow its 

 entire length, the same as some of the best 

 specimens of aueens and drones now do. 

 There is nothing impossible with any animal 

 or vegetable that is hybrid, or that will 

 'sport.' But the question naturally arises, 

 are these yellow bees as good for honey 

 gathering as the darker Italians? Where 

 properly Yn-ed, I can see no difference in 

 favor of either along this line. Admitt ng 

 both to be alike as to honey gathering qual- 

 ities, we find the reason why the yellower 

 bees are so eagerly sought, in the thought 

 expressed in the beginning of this article, 

 that 'most of us want something nice,' and 

 beauty is a thing to be desired, where we 

 can have it without lessening other valuable 

 qualities. Some seem to think that these 

 yellow bees have been bred in-and-in-more 

 than any other Viees, but this is, I think, a 

 mistake. There were plenty of four banded 

 bees as early as 1871 in an apiary near me. 

 These bees were crossed with other four 

 banded bees from apiaries in the West, and 

 these in turn crossed with very yellow Ital- 

 ians in the Southwest; and so the crossing 

 of the yellowest bees in the United States 

 has been kept up till we have to-day bees in 

 the New World whose abdomens are three- 

 fourths a solid yellow, and yet so far as I 

 can see they are just as good honey gatherers 

 as those bees formerly called Italians, show- 

 ing but very little yellow, that would sting 

 the 'socks' oft' any man." 



