THE SMERICSP* SBK J©URKMIr. 



455 



I have had no experience with chaff 

 hives, as thej' are useless for the South. 



P. L. VlALLON. 



1. Double-wall with chaft'. 2. Double- 

 wall. 3. No, but a shade-board will 

 pay.— A. B. Mason. 



1. If the space were perfect h- air- 

 tight it would be as good as the chaflf 

 — otherwise not. 2. The former. 3. 

 No. — Eugene Secor. 



1. I prefer fine or cut straw to 

 either. 2. I prefer the double-walled 

 hive, every time. 3. The single story 

 is just as good. — G. M. Doolittle. 



1. Use the chaff to make sure of 

 dead-air spaces. 2. No practical dif- 

 ference ; these things do not cure or 

 creat3 bee-diarrhea. 3. No, no. — 

 James Heddon. 



1. The chaff makes it warmer, or 

 more independent of outside tempera- 

 ture. 2. 1 do not understand. The 

 character of the wall must be ex- 

 plained. 3. No. — A. J. Cooif. 



1. I do not think any difference will 

 be found. 2. The first mentioned will, 

 I think, be the better. 3. I prefer a 

 single-wall for the purpose. — J. E. 

 Pond. 



1. I use, for wintering on the sum- 

 mer stands, a single-walled hive with 

 4 inches of packing outside. 3. I do 

 not know. I shall try with and with- 

 out this season. — H. D. Cutting. 



1. I should prefer chaff to a dead- 

 air space. 2. The double-walled hives, 

 but I would neither use those nor a 

 hive with -t-inch solid walls. 3. No ; 

 it is no advantage whatever. — C. H. 



DiBBEKN. 



1. I have never used chaff in that 

 way. I have some double-walled hives 

 with an inch of dead-air space between 

 i-ineh walls, and the bees always win- 

 ter well in them. 2. The former. 3. 

 1 prefer a double-walled surplus story. 

 — M. Mahin. 



I. I am well satisfied that the hives 

 packed with chaff' are the safest in 

 out-door wintering. 2. I should pre- 

 fer the double-walled hive. 3. No, 

 but further North, where the nights 

 are very cool, some extra protection 

 would appear to be necessar}'. — G. L. 

 Tinker. 



1. Double walls packed with chaff 

 have proved best with rae. Outside 

 walls I inch thick ; inside walls J inch 

 thick, and 3 inches of chaff. Chaff" 

 over the frames 6 inches thick. 2. 

 Double walls are better in winter for 

 out^doors than single-walls. 3. Double- 

 walled supers are no advantage. I 

 have used them. — J. M. Shuck. 



1. Chaff' between is the best. 2. I 

 would say that neither is pi'aclicable, 

 and I could not make a choice be- 

 tween them. 3. No, not according to 



my ideas of a practical working hive. 

 It pays best to use a light, properly 

 arranged hive for storing honey, and 

 for rapid mani|nilati()n. Then use an 

 outer-case arcnind it where packing is 

 necessary for winter inotection. Very 

 few "combined" implements are a 

 perfect success. The honey season is 

 the all-important thing in bee-keeping. 

 — G. W. Demaree. 



1. For wintering bees, hives with 

 double walls, having the space be- 

 tween them perfectly air-tight are on 

 some accounts preferable to those 

 having the space between the walls 

 tilled with chafl'. 2. The former is, 

 perhaps, preferable, but the ditt'erence 

 is very slight. 3. No. — The Editor. 



A REVIEW. 



Also a Reply to Various Writers 

 on Current Topics. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY G. W. demaree. 



I have been so busy of late looking 

 after a multiplicity of bu.siness on my 

 hands, that I have been compelled to 

 pass by many things that otherwise I 

 would like to notice. 



Mr. Doolittle is still doing battle for 

 his " swarming impulse" queens, and 

 perhaps he imagines that he has 

 silenced all opposition. Strange that 

 Mr. D. has failed to see that he has 

 not pretended to meet the real matter 

 at issue. The question has nothing to 

 do with the " dollar queen," and other 

 loose and unscientific methods to force 

 queens ready for the market. The 

 real question is an important one, and 

 should be treated with all fairness. 



Can the art and skill of the apiarist 

 be .so applied as to improve the races 

 of bees ? This is the only phase of 

 the question that I care to discu.ss. 

 Man has succeeded in improving all 

 the domesticated animals, and my ex- 

 periments go to show that the honej-- 

 bee is not an exception. 



Mr. Doolittle seems to be tender on 

 this subject, and I am not surprised to 

 see that a true, conscientious man like 

 himself should instinctively feel " ten- 

 der" when it comes to queens i-eared 

 by "nater." For there has been as 

 much humbug to tlie square inch con- 

 nected with the '• swarming impulse " 

 cpieen business, as can be found any- 

 where, the shrewd hybrid business not 

 excepted. 



I have no hesitation in saying that 

 as many persons have been disappoint- 



ed, who have purchased advertised 

 "swarming impulse reared queens," 

 in proportion to the number sold, as 

 have been disappointed by purchasing 

 queens reared by the cheaper methods. 

 But all such argument as this, and the 

 condemnation of Mr. Doolittle of the 

 shoddj' methods, does not touch the 

 real question. 



That bees and queens can be im- 

 proved in beauty of markings, size, 

 etc., I have proved bej'ond question. 

 I wish that I was able to speak as con- 

 fidently of the improvement of the 

 working qualities of my bees. Perhaps 

 this desirable part will be found to 

 baffle the skill of the most careful 

 breeders. 



After breeding up a strain of Italian 

 bees that I believed was superior as 

 honey-gatherers, I put into my apiary 

 an imported Italian queen, and with 

 daughters reared from her I re-queen- 

 ed about 20 colonies of my bees, hav- 

 ing in view the introduction of fresh 

 blood on the male side of the race, and 

 to my surprise these colonies, headed 

 by daughters of the imported mother, 

 were in no way inferior to my care- 

 fully bred bees when it came to solid, 

 hard work. The same thing has oc- 

 curred twice in my apiary in the past 

 ten years. I therefore conclude that 

 race has more to do with industi-y and 

 the other qualities which go to make 

 up good working bees, than all else 

 besides. 



It has been quite common for queen- 

 breeders to talk and write with all 

 confidence about rearing queens for 

 " business, etc." I really wish that 

 there was more of the substantial 

 about it, for the reason that any api- 

 arist may dispel his delusion by trying 

 the experiment that I have mentioned 

 above. The main point in breeding 

 bees is to keep the race or strain pure 

 and keep up the introduction of fresh 

 blood to give health, vigor and energy. 



Bee-Culture Not a Fixed Science. 



My friend and co-laborer in the api- 

 cultural vineyard in Kentucky, Mr. 

 James M. Tyler, proposes to be un- 

 mercifully hard on Dr. Allen and my- 

 self, and perhaps all the old veterans 

 in bee-culture. He demands of us 

 that we stniid to what we have written 

 on bee-culture in the years that have 

 gone by. Speaking for myself, I can- 

 not afford to do this, though much of 

 what I did write was fully up with the 

 times. 



Bee-culture is not a " fixed science." 

 It is progressive, and hence the writer 

 on bee-culture, if disenthralled from 

 fogyism, must always be moving. Still 

 I do not demur to the bee " literature 

 under your arms." Come on with it, 

 and I am sure that you will not find 

 me the stinging hybrid that you repre- 

 sent me to be. 



