CHAPTER 9 



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Fig. 40. The bee-escape board lends 

 itself to modern honey production 



Extracting 



We aim to extract the honey as soon as it is ripe, and, if 

 possible, before the crop has quite ended. The reason of this is 

 obvious. It is not so pleasant to remove honey during a dearth, 

 as during a honey flow. 

 But a great deal of the 

 honey must be left upon 

 the hives until the crop 

 is over. 



On the afternoon 

 preceding the removal of 

 the honey, we put on the 

 bee-escape boards. This 

 operation is quickly per- 

 formed with little fatigue, 

 because of the method 

 employed, which does not 

 require the lifting of the 



supers more than one end at a time, balancing them over a 

 cross piece which supports them until the escape board is 

 slipped on the brood apartment. 



Some persons object to the bee-escape. So did we, before 

 we gave it a thorough trial. Now we have bee-escape boards in 

 sufficient number to supply one for each colony and we find the 

 use of them a great economy of labor. After from 7 to 14 hours, 

 only an occasional bee is left in the super. The only time when 

 bees fail to leave the super is when the queen is with them or 

 when there is brood in the super. They evidently consider it 

 their duty to remain with the queen or the helpless brood and we 

 should not criticize them for it, as it is evidently good judgment 

 on their part. 



We have to be careful, when putting on bee-ecapes in times 

 of dearth, not to allow of any passage from the outside for 

 robbers, as they would help themselves to the combs of honey 

 that are deprived of their bees. 



75 



