186 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



the supers there is no drip from them, as 

 the " muss " caused by their breakage is all 

 cleaned up before it is time to remove the 

 supers and there is no gnawing of holes into 

 the cappings as sometimes happens when 

 honey is removed by the old methods after 

 the harvest is over. Possibly, too, escapes 

 will allow bees to be successfully and pleas- 

 antly managed in house apiaries. 



One of the correspondents, Mr. H. L. 

 Jeffrey, says that my advice to place a case 

 of new sections beneath the escape is not 

 always advisable. He says that a new case 

 of sections placed on top is quite often de- 

 serted, thereby causing a crowding of the 

 bees in the broud chamber and either swarm- 

 ing or laziness results. Friend Jeffrey has 

 misunderstood me. I did not advise put- 

 ting the new super on tov. Here is what I 

 said: " Bees pass down through an escape 

 much more readily when there is plenty of 

 room in the hive or supers below. Usually, 

 in the working season, when a case of honey 

 is ready to come off, it is well to put on an- 

 other super. When such is the case, the new 

 super should be given at the time the escape 

 is put in place, as this gives room for the 

 bees to 'escape' into. " Nothing is said 

 about putting the new case on fop. As a 

 matter of fact it would be put at the bottom,, 

 unless near the end of the season (see ex- 

 tract from C. B. J. in the Extracted Depart- 

 ment). In other words, the supers would be 

 manipulated exactly as they would if no es- 

 capes were used. All the difference being 

 that, instead of smoking, brushing, blowing 

 and shaking out most of the b jes and carrying 

 the stragglers into the honey house, the bee 

 escape is slipped in place when a case is 

 ready to come off, and when the bees are 

 out the honey is taken away. Mr. Jeffrey 

 objects to putting a case of sections just be- 

 neath the escape, but would leave an empty 

 space there, equal to a case of sections, for 

 the bees to cluster in. Why not let them 

 cluster in a case of sections? If the case of 

 sections is placed next the brood nest, when 

 honey is coming in, the bees will not only 

 cluster in it, but will at once commence 

 work in the sections. 



Mr. Jeffrey also objects to escapes being 

 put in place so rapidly as four per minute. 

 If the supers and their contents are to be ex- 

 amined to determine whether an escape is 

 needed, and, if so, whore it is needed, such 

 rapid work might not be possible; perhaps a 

 minute to each hive might be needed. 



When I said " four a minute for two men " 

 I had in mind simply the placing in position 

 of the escapes after the locations where they 

 were needed had already been decided upon. 

 If there is anything more to be said on 

 this subject, space will be given in the 

 August Review. 



HOUSE APIAEIE8. 



How frequently it happens that one little 

 invention brings a whole lot of changes in 

 its wake; also brings into use discarded 

 methods and implements — perhaps causes 

 others to be cast aside. The bee escape 

 seems destined to belong to that class. One 

 reason why I greatly favored black bees in 

 V raising comb honey was because they could 

 ■?be so easily driven from the supers. With 

 vJbee escapes, this point would lose its value. 

 §Years ago, quite a number of bee keepers 

 fc built house apiaries only to abandon them 

 ■inafter giving them a thorough trial. Of 

 f:.sCourse, a house apiary has its advantages 

 ;: , and disadvantages, but one of the greatest 

 ■{Idifficulties, if not the greatest, was that of 

 • premoving the honey. This could not be 

 j^accomplished without allowing the bees to 

 i escape inside the building, which was a 

 •never-ending annoyance. The bee escape 

 will entirely remove this disagreeable fea- 

 ture, and it remains to be seen if, with this 

 objection out of the way, the desirable fea- 

 tures of the house apiary outnumber its 

 faults. 



; The first, and perhaps the most important 

 objection to a home apiary, aside from the 

 matter of removing the surplus, is its cost. 

 Without any close figuring I should " guess " 

 that it would cost three times as much to 

 house bees in a house apiary as it would in 

 ordinary, single-walled hives. Having writ- 

 ten thus far, I have sat for some time, pen 

 in hand, trying to think of the next objec- 

 tion, and I declare I can't think of another 

 objection. Is it possible that the only ob- 

 jections to house apiaries have been their 

 expense and the difficulty of removing the 

 honey? Who is there already possessed of 

 an abandoned house apiary and of some ex- 

 perience in its management who will now 

 re-stock it with bees because of the ease of 

 removing the surplus with bee escapes? I 

 came very near mentioning, as one objection 

 to the house apiary, that it would be unpleas- 

 ant to work in such a cooped-up place, that 

 most bee keepers would prefer to work out 



