THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



1(51 



I used four different patterns of escapes 

 — the cone, trap-door, Porter spring, and 

 Mr. Dibbern's latest pattern. Triple-cone 

 escaj)es made of perforated tin work quite 

 well at times. Occasionally quite a number 

 of bees tiud their way back through the cones 

 into the super. 



The trap-door escape^; work nicely for a 

 little while, but they are soon rendered use- 

 less on account of propolis. 



Mr. Dibbem's new escape gave very poor 

 results, as in my first trial with it there was 

 very little decrease in the number of bees in 

 a T super in 24 hours after adjusting the 

 escape on the hive. My second trial was but 

 little better, as only about half the bees were 

 out of the super in 24 hours. In subsequent 

 trials it worked some better, but not any 

 better, if as well, as the cone escapes, as the 

 bees are slower in passing out through the 

 Dibbern. I very much dislike the Dibbern 

 escape, for two reasons; i. e., it is just as 

 liable to clog up with dead bees as the cone 

 escape is, and there is no way of clearing it 

 out or knowing that it is oris not in working 

 order without taking it apart. 



"While the bees have shown a disposition 

 to propolize the perforations in the perfora- 

 ted tin cone escapes, and plaster over those 

 made of wire cloth, and glue the doors of the 

 trap-door escapes fast, they have put but 

 very little propolis into the spring escapes, 

 but not enough to interfere with the working 

 of the springs in the least." 



Bee-Escapes Help to Make Cheap Honey. 



Last month the Review gave a long article 

 on bee-escapes, but, as this implement 

 promises to play such an important part in 

 the future of bee-keeping, I think it is en- 

 tirely in order to again give another extract, 

 from Gleanings, on the subject: — 



"Both the Dibbern and Reese escapes are 

 a success with me. Like others I met with 

 failure when first using them; but a little ob- 

 servation soon put me on the right track. 

 The main secret of success is in the fact that 

 bees will not all desert thi'ir queen or brood, 

 sealed or unsealed ; therefore to succeed with 

 the escape, surplus supers must be free from 

 all lirood, and the queen below. This can be 

 accouii)lished to a certainty only by the use 

 of zinc queen-excluders. 



The space between the escape-board and 

 the top of the frames below should not be 

 over a bee-space {% inch): for if, as some 

 recommend, a space of one to three inches is 

 left, the bees will cluster in this, filling it 

 with brace-combs, at the same time cluster- 

 ing on the escape, thereby forming a com- 

 munication back to the supers. To secure 

 the best results, supers of empty combs, or 

 sections, should be placed under the escapes, 

 as the bees are slow in going down into a 

 crowded brood-chamber below — especially 

 in eight-frame hives. I generally place the 

 escape on just before night, and take the 

 supers off by seven or eight o'clock next 

 morning. As a rule there will not be more 



than a dozen or two bees left in the supers, 

 in two or three instances it cleaned them 

 out completely. Half-depth supers are freed 

 from the bees much (juicker than full ones. 

 A free use of the smoker when putting on 

 the escapes will hasten the bees in going be- 

 low. It takes me about one minute to each 

 hive in i)utting on the escapes, they being 

 made in a board just the size of the hive; and 

 all there is to do is to raise the super and 

 slip this between; give a few puffs of smoke 

 in the top of the super, and go to the next. 

 In the morning take your wheelbarrow and 

 wheel your supers, now free from bees, to 

 the extracting-room, where you can extract 

 at your leisure. This is a long way ahead of 

 the old plan of sliaking and brushing the 

 bees off each individual comb, with an army 

 of cross robbers following you around in the 

 hot sun all day. 



A few points of great advantage in the 

 use of these escapes, overlooked by some, are, 

 that, when extracting every week or 10 days, 

 as some do, you do not disturb the working 

 force of bees in the jields. This is quite an 

 item; for, often-times, by the old way you so 

 excite the bees that it causes them to lose the 

 best part of the day, right in the midst of a 

 good honey-flow, which means 8, 10, or l.'S 

 lbs. of honey less. I am confident that large 

 amounts of honey are lost each year in just 

 this way. Who has not seen colonies cluster 

 out on their hives, all day, sometimes long- 

 er, just from being disturbed in the way 

 mentioned? When taking off honey after 

 the flow has passed, you avoid all that 

 troublesome robbing, which is sure to annoy 

 one at this season. Again, after using the 

 escapes one season, you can not fail to note 

 the change in the temper of your bees com- 

 pared with what it was when managed in the 

 old way. 



1 would not part with the escapes for a 

 good deal; for by their use one saves three- 

 fourths the labor of taking off a crop of 

 honey. 



Give me a hive having frames at fixed 

 distances, with a plain zinc queen-excluder, 

 these escapes, and a good reversible extrac- 

 tor, and I will show you how to produce 

 honey at less than half the cost nowadays. 



A. F. Bkown. 

 Huntington, Fla., May 18. 



[You have given us one of the most valu- 

 able and seasonable articles of the season; 

 and there is many a l>ee-keeper who is cran- 

 ing his neck to see how these "new-fangled 

 things" are coming out. It is i)leasant to 

 know that these innovations not only work 

 nicely on paper, but in actual practice. I 

 have thought, for over a year back, that the 

 bee-escai)e and fixed distances were going to 

 revolutionize present methods in the produc- 

 tion of comb and extracted honey: and the 

 way reports are coming in, it begins to seem 

 as if I had not surmised amiss. In fact, it is 

 difficult to see how any one could come to a 

 different conclusion who would be willing to 

 lay aside his old-time prejudices. 



Your next to the last paragraph, unless 

 you are an ardent enthusiast, contains an 



