68 OUTAPIARIES 



in the super, the bees wih not desert her to go below. These two 

 causes have many tunes resulted in failure and rejeclion of the 

 escape when with care it would have worked properly. Bees will 

 also leave sealed honey much more readily than unsealed. ]\Iany 

 remove but one super at a time with the escape, but the writer 

 has experienced but small chances of failure when removing two, 

 three or four supers with one escape, and this is our usual proce- 

 dure. 



The greatest hindrance to the escape is very cool weather when 

 the bees are less apt to run down. They do go down, at least, 

 very slowly. Another objection in cool weather is that when the 

 bees go down, the honey cools quickly and when taken off is very 

 stiff and cold and hard to uncap and extract. 



JXIany use no escapes, thus saving themselves an extra trip to 

 the outapiary. They use a combination of smoldng and brushing 

 to rid the combs of bees, driving them below with cautious smok- 

 ing, after which the remaining ones may be readily brushed. The 

 bristle bee brush is best for this purpose. Carbolic clotlis are 

 spread over supers by some to drive the bees down. 



The advantage of the bee-escape, howevei', cannot be denied, 

 much overbalancing its disadvantages. 



Each oulapiaiist has his own method of getting full supers 

 from the apiary to the extracting house. Some erect tracks with 

 cars capable of loading several supers at a time. A larger 

 majority locate the houses as conveniently as possible and use an 

 ordinary garden wheell.)arrow equipped with springs to lessen 

 the jar on the combs. 



It is wise to be provided with burlap cloths to be us(^d as robber 

 cloths to cover supers from the time they are taken from the hives 

 until they are in the shelter of the extracting building. A flat 

 drip pan on the barrow is almost a necessity, especially where bees 

 are ))rushed instead of using the bee- escape. 



