April 2, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



213 



Chicago-Northwestern Convention. 



Report of the Chicag-o-Northwestern Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Convention, held in Chicago, 

 Dec. 3 and 4, 1902. 



BY OUR OWN SHORTHAND REPORTER. 



[Continued from pa^e 197.) 

 THE USE OF CHAFF-HIVES. 



Pres. York — You can ask any question you would like 

 to hear discussed, and we will have the slips gathered up 

 pretty soon, so we will have questions on hand all the time. 

 There is one slip here with simply " chaflf -hive " on it. I 

 don't know what the questioner wants to ask. How many 

 are now using chaff-hives ? 



Eight held up their hands. 



Pres. York — I suppose all the rest do not use them. 

 What advantage is there over the non-chaff single-walled 

 hives ? 



Mr. Whitney — This question of hive is like many others 

 a question of locality. I always used chaff-hives until I sold 

 out my bees last spring, and now I have an old-style hive 

 I wish I was rid of. I like the chaff-hive. A double-wall 

 hive, the second story a single shell with an outside case 

 that is sufficiently high to contain two or three sections. I 

 find that the best hive that I have ever seen. I think I can 

 produce more honey with such a hive as that than any 

 other. The bees in the double-wall hive, such as I described, 

 however strong they may be, will gather around the sec- 

 tion-cases. I scarcely ever have any hanging out when I 

 use that kind of a hive. I know it isn't -popular with most 

 people, but give me the chaff-hive of the kind I describe 

 over any other kind I ever had. 



Pres. York — Let me ask Mr. Root or Mr. L,eahy about 

 the demand for chaff-hives. I could answer for this point, 

 but perhaps it would be better for the manufacturers to an- 

 swer that. 



Mr. Root — I wouldn't be able to answer. 



Pres. York — Mr. Leahy, how is it about the chaff-hive 

 down in Missouri ? 



Mr. Leahy — I used to be a believer in the chaff-hives. 

 I used to think that I got brood earlier in the spring, and I 

 believe I did, but later on, when the warm seasons came, 

 the bees didn't develop as fast then as they did in the sin- 

 gle-walled hives. Cellar-wintering I believe in. I have 

 disposed of all my chaff-hives — gave them away. 



Mr. Whitney — I am aware, as I said before, that the 

 chaff-hive is not a popular one. One great reason I think 

 is, it is an expensive hive, costs twice as much as any other 

 hive that I have ever seen ; but, as Mr. Leahy says, I think 

 they do develop brood more rapidly in the spring, and by 

 the time fruit-bloom is on, especially in this locality, you 

 will have a very strong colony of bees. I have always had. 

 I disposed of my bees last spring down at Kankakee, 

 looked them over in April, and my friends said, " What 

 strong colonies of bees you have." I said. " I always have ; 

 I wouldn't have any other ; and they are always ready as 

 soon as there is any honey to get." During the hot season 

 the double-wall hive, I think, protects the bees from the 

 extreme heat of the sun. I can set them right out without 

 any shade, and during' the early spring, when a single-wall 

 hive, it seems to me, would be affected by the extreme heat 

 and cold, the double-wall hive maintains a medium tempera- 

 ture like a refrigerator, for instance; there isn't the varia- 

 tion that there is in a single-wall hive. I think the bees 

 are carefully protected in such a hive. I know that I pro- 

 duce so much more honey than my neighbors that they 

 wonder why. I told them that I thought it was partly the 

 kind of hive I used, and perhaps because I gave them more 

 attention than some others, and get twice the amount of 

 honey that other people get. 



Mr. Wilcox — Did you try any without chaff in the same 

 apiary ? 



Mr. Whitney— Not here, but in Ohio I did. I have 

 always had better success with the chaff-hive, that's why 



my experience in that matter has determined me in favor of 

 that hive. I never think of protecting ray bees in this 

 locality except by putting cushions on top of the hive. I 

 have never lost a colony from freezing. 



Mr. Niver — In central New York everybody uses chaff- 

 hives. In Wisconsin they can't use them at all. I think it 

 is altogether a matter of locality. In Wisconsin they must 

 winter them in a cellar. A cliaff-hive in a cellar is a nui- 

 sance. We, in New York, can't winter outside without the 

 chaff-hive, and we can not successfully get our bees in the 

 spring ready for business without the chaff-hive. We can 

 winter outside, everybody in our locality (in Tompkins Co., 

 N. Y., which is the greatest county for bees), they all win- 

 ter in chaff-hives, and using them that way and in that 

 locality it is correct. There are a great many things besides 

 wintering. In our apiaries we have no robbing. There is 

 four inches of space for them to get in. No loose cracks, 

 and then the sun can't warm them up so they will Hy out 

 when they don't want to. We never want the sun to warm 

 them up. If it is warm enough they will swarm there. It 

 will be mostly a matter of locality. Each one must study 

 his locality. 



Mr. Abbott — I had a big experience with hives when I 

 first went to Missouri. I bought and sold the best. I ran 

 an apiary of about 200 colonies. The result was I had a 

 chaff-hive — a Jerseyville hive. It had a place for packing 

 around over the brood-chamber 6 or 8 inches. I had these 

 in my apiary, quite a number of them, because that was the 

 only hive that was sold and pushed when I went there ; and 

 among them I had a number of hives that were ;'s of an 

 inch thick, and one inch, and I was a great believer in the 

 chaff-hive ; although I had kept bees in Tioga Co., N. Y., I 

 never had thought of a chaff-hive, and I don't know it yet 

 that bees will freeze. I never thought anything about it 

 until that winter. The first colony that swarmed, and the 

 colony that stored the most honey, was in a "s hive, no pro- 

 tection at all, right out-doors in Missouri where it gets 28 

 degrees below. That made me look the matter up, and I 

 watched it for several years, and I discovered that the first 

 bees that swarmed were always in these thin-walled hives, 

 and the bees in Jerseyville hives didn't swarm as quickly 

 as the others, and they didn't give me any more honey. I 

 haven't any use for chaff -hives in Missouri. Possibly in 

 Wisconsin I might have to use them. I wondered why it 

 was. I don't know, only the bees warmed up quicker and 

 began to breed sooner, and a number of those hives were 

 protected by putting store-boxes over them, and then they 

 were taken off early in the spring. I think the thin-wall 

 hives, protected that way, were the best, and responded 

 quicker than any I know, and I was buying and selling the 

 best for eight or ten years that way. I thought these hives 

 were of no account, but that was the result. Of course, I 

 wouldn't advise anybody to use that kind of a hive. 



Mr. Kluck — I have always been using 8 or 10 frame 

 hives, also a large chaff-hive, and I find the chaff-hive pro- 

 duces from one-half to two-thirds more honey than the 8 or 

 10 frame hive does ; and at the same time it is more safe in 

 wintering bees in the chaff-hive than in the 8 or 10 frame 

 single-wall. 



Dr. Miller — How many frames? 



Mr. Kluck — Ten frames in the lower story. 



Dr. Miller — That is the same size frames as your others. 



Mr. Kluck — Yes, sir; and another thing in support of 

 them, in the spring you can breed the bees handier, and 

 also it keeps them from swarming. 



Mr. Fluegge — Take a single-wall hive, winter in a good 

 cellar, and protected by wall-paper on the outside and an 

 air-space between, would you not favor greatly the chaff- 

 hive for spring protection and rearing brood ? 



Mr. Niver — Is that something in the same line as a 

 house-apiary ? Do you mean to have them above ground ? 



Mr. Fluegge — I mean in a good cellar without the pro- 

 tection in winter, and in the spring when you put them out 

 protect them ; not leave outside in the winter, partly be- 

 neath ground, in a house-cellar, and there is very change- 

 able weather in the spring when you put them out. 



Mr. Niver — If it is a house-apiary he is wintering in, in 

 our locality we wouldn't recommend it. I lost 90 percent in 

 that kind of an arrangement for two years. 



Mr. Chapman — If you will try common, ordinary tar- 

 felt, make a wrapping of it and tack a lath on where you 

 join it, you will find that as good a spring protection as 

 anything you can get, after taking them out of the cellar. 



Mr. Wilcox — As lor protection I think it may be a little 

 hot excepting the few cold days that will come on during the 

 first month, and I find a better method, and that is to place 

 them where they will have the sun in the forenoon and no 



