488 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug. 1, 



ment by calling on the best informed bee-keepers in the land 

 for their experiences and opinions. D ciz ."zi: ^ l~d " 



CD And now comes Mr. McArthur's broadest and most sweep- 

 ing claims for the yellow bees, "A pure Italian (queen) will 

 produce yellow drones — as yellow as the mother ;" and, 

 further on he says, "A purely-mated Italian queen will pro- 

 duce uniformly-marked workers, yellow to the tip, completely 

 so on the under side of the abdomen." 



I woul.d now like to ask Mr. McArthur whether he ever 

 imported a queen direct from Italy, that produced such 

 drones or workers, or whether he knows any one that has im- 

 ported a queen that would produce such. From my experi- 

 ence, and from all that I have ever read on the subject, I have 

 been led to believe that queens imported from Italy produced 

 workers having three rather dull-colored yellow bands, or 

 sometimes called " leather-colored," while the drones of such 

 imported queens are a dark brown color, showing little if any 

 yellow. 1. ~~ ■ 



If I am correct in this (and I believe nearly every en- 

 lightened bee-keeper in the land will bear me out in the asser- 

 tion), then where do pure Italians come from ? From Italy, 

 certainly ! But if Mr. McArthur is correct, they must come 

 from somewhere else. Likely from York State, where, in the 

 hands of the originator, I have no doubt they are a valuable 

 strain, but since being scattered over the country, and falling 

 into the hands of careless breeders, who have bred for color 

 without regard to other essential qualities, they have dete- 

 riorated until they are a valuable strain to bee-fanciers only. 

 IZir If any one will take the trouble to look over back num- 

 bers of the various bee-papers, and read all that Mr. G. M. 

 Doolittle has written on this subject in the last year or two, I 

 think he will learn where this strain (which Mr. McArthur 

 claims to be the only pure Italians) originated. He will also 

 learn that Mr. Doolittle never made any broad claims for the 

 yellow bees, and never asked bee-keepers to purchase them, 

 but as they nearly all called for the yellowest queens he had, 

 he was willing to accommodate his customers; but that the 

 so-called golden or 5-banded bees are inferior to the 3-banded 

 bees in most parts of the country, can no longer be doubted 

 by those who read the reports concerning them. I would re- 

 fer the reader to page 490 of Gleanings for June 15, 1895. 



In his second paragraph Mr. McArthur says: "If the 

 editors of some of our papers keep up the crusade as they 

 have done in the past, we may bid farewell to the advauce- 

 ment of bee-culture on this line." 



If he had put it in this way it would be nearer correct : 

 If editors aud others that know the facts in the case, will per- 

 mit the rank and file of bee-keepers to go on in their mad and 

 foolish race for yellow, instead of honey-producing qualities 

 in bees, we will soon have a strain of bees that will not be 

 worth their keeping to the practical bee-keeper, but to the 

 bee-fancier they will be ornam.eutal, indeed. 



Bluffton, Mo. 



P. S. — Can't the admirers of golden bees get up a bee- 

 fancier's association, where they could have full swing, and 

 not be bothered by those that keep bees for the honey they 

 Rather ? 



S. E. M. 



^ 



Double vs. Single Walled Hives — Wintering. 



BY C. E. MEAD. 



c 



When I read the answers to the question about double- 

 walled hives, and saw how many were not in favor of them, I 

 said, " Well, that is the poorest guessing I ever saw in the 

 ' Old Reliable !' " Those in the Southern States who have not 

 been compelled to use a cellar or a double-walled hive to win- 

 ter safely, are excusable ; but those in the North have not 

 tried them in a " searching " winter like the one just past. 



Mr. Abbott says that bees do not freeze, but in the long- 



continued cold-spells they cannot stir to get the honey, and 

 starve — freeze to death — or " come dead" just the same. Had 

 they been packed in a double-walled hive, they would have 

 been warm enough to move about, and would neither starve 

 nor freeze. 



For about eight years I have wintered some colonies in 

 two-story hives, on from four to six frames in each hive, ac- 

 cording to the size of the colony. I prepare them in Septem- 

 ber. For five frames, Tjf inch space in the center between 

 the two division-boards is right; 10-frame hives are best. I 

 place the division-boards equidistant from the sides, with 7jf 

 inch space in the center; screw a IK-inch slim screw into the 

 center of each division-board at the back of the hive ; drive 

 two 2-inch wire-nails in each board from the front of the hive, 

 but not clear in, and let the heads stick out %, so you can 

 draw them out easily in the spring. Place this body on a 

 bottom-board, and pack solid between division-boards and the 

 side of the hive. With soft clay lute the top of this hive all 

 around. Have a, % ot M inch board to lay on top of the 

 frames in the top story. Now put the five lightest frames in 

 the packed hive, with the bees; place the prepared second body 

 on the first hive, and cover the center space, and pack be- 

 tween division-boards and sides as you did the first one. Lute 

 the joints of the top of this hive. Now put the five heaviest 

 frames in this hive, with adhering bees. Put on another body, 

 or two supers ; put the J^-lnch board over the frames, and 

 then put in 8 inches of packing. Tack a few old newspapers 

 to the backs of the hives, aud then screw on a board that will 

 cover from top to bottom. 



Now comes the part which, if neglected, will cause a total 

 failure from dampness, even through the division-boards and 

 the j!4-inch cover. Have the cover project enough so the rain 

 and snow will not blow in, and place J^-inch strips under it. 

 Let your hive face the south, and they will be all right in the 

 spring. I wintered a 3-frame nucleus on 8 frames in this 

 way — 4 in each hive — and they were booming this spring. But 

 the most satisfaction comes through my double-walled hives. 

 How it pleased me to see the first hive I opened in May. One 

 colony that was wintered in a two'Story 10-frame hive did not 

 stir enough all winter to let me know whether they were dead 

 or not — 10 frames of brood and honey, and more honey than 

 they had in the fall; plenty of drones and queen-cell cups 

 started, and the 20 frames covered with bees. My other 

 double-walled hives, with 10 frame hives at the bottom, and 

 two inches of packing on top, and then the bottom of a nucleus 

 colony in an 8-frame hive, with an opening at right angles 

 with the lower hive, came through in splendid condition. 

 These nuclei had a 2 inch opening 4 inches from the entrance. 

 The bees are placed on the left side of the tier, and the en- 

 trance on the right corner. 



One of these nuclei I consider as remarkable. It had 

 more bees and honey than in the fall — 8 frames solid full of 

 honey and brood, and only dandelion and scanty fruit-bloom 

 to get it from. The lightest nucleus had only three frames 

 with brood in, and I could not see that they had eaten 5 

 pounds of honey. These nuclei had at least 6 inches of 

 packing over them, and the heat of the big colony about 3K 

 inches below them makes it so warm that it is necessary to 

 give them as much room and honey as I do. In a bad season 

 they will breed up and starve before it is warm enough to 

 open the hives to see if they need stores. I am not as sure of 

 wintering these small nuclei packed over the strong colonies 

 as I am the big ones. 



As I have not lost but one colony in 10 years, in these 

 double hives (and that came through the winter all right, but 

 for some reason the queen died, and she was only two years 

 old), I united them with the nucleus above them. One-half of 

 the bees in the single-walled hives died, and the other half 

 do not compare in strength with the nuclei wintered above 



