ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION: 



137 



the walls of the hives and interferes 

 with the brood-chamber. 



These are the chief advantages of a 

 double-walled hive. 



There are many ways of making 

 them, as we all know. The style is not 

 to be considered. There are probably 

 some other advantages. The robbing 

 bees in the spring do not enter a chaff 

 hive, or any otlher hive where they have 

 to crawl from 3 to 5 inches to get in- 

 side. You can preserve that long hall- 

 way for the entrance by laying a couple 

 of small sticks in the entrance. My 

 chaff-hives were never robbed unless 

 the bees died first. 



For people who winter bees in the 

 cellar, as I do, they are too large to 

 carry out and into the cellar. Some of 

 them, are so large they w^ould not go 

 through a cellar-door. 



Another serious objection is the cost. 

 A chaff-hive or double-walledi hive as 

 usually made costs twice as much. 



These are the two principal objec- 

 tions. 



There is another: They are very in- 

 convenient through the summer season 

 to manipulate. They can be made^so 

 that the upper and lower stories will 

 be separate; I have them both ways. 



You cannot conveniently tear them 

 out, as I used to tear out either for ex- 

 tracted or comb ; for that reason I don't 

 use them, and don't recommend them, 

 unless you are so situated that you 

 must winter bees out-of-doors, Then 

 by all means, you must (have double- 

 walled hives, or a substitute for them, 

 as Miss Candler does, and some others. 



That is about all I know to say on 

 the subject. 



I leave it to you to inform me what 

 you know about it. 



F. Wilcox. 



Mr. W'hitnej^- — I have used nothing 

 but the double-walledi hive. There are 

 advantages I think that Mr. Wilcox did 

 not mention. Now, in early season, 

 when you have put on the section - 

 cases, we often have chilly nights, and 

 the bees, while they are at work in tthe 

 sections, will shrink away from the 

 outside tiers to the center in the single- 

 board hive, but they will ocupy the en- 

 tire section where the walls are double, 

 like those that I use, having a shelf ex- 

 tending two stories. I mean at fruit- 

 blooming time; often up to the middle 

 of June we have chilly nights some- 

 times in this Northern climate; per- 



haps this is not so in Central or in 

 Southern Illinois, and what I say would 

 not apply to these parts of the State. 



Throughout here it is true, and I 

 have had my coloniees build up good 

 and strong in the section-cases in the 

 double-walled hives when others who 

 have single walled hives in the same 

 neighborhood would get no work in 

 the sections at all. 



One year — a very poor one here In 

 the North — I had then about 20 col- 

 onies — 22 I think; others in the same 

 neighborhood had many more bees 

 than I did. I secured 900 pounds of 

 good comb honey, and my neighbors 

 didn't get a pound. I attributed it 

 more to the kind of hive that I used 

 than to any manipulation, and, I think, 

 for comb-honey production, there is 

 nothing that equals that double wall. 



I could put 3 section supers under 

 the cover of those hives that I used, 

 at a time. Of course, you cannot 

 tier up for extracted honey in them, 

 as you can in single-walled hives un- 

 less you put on what is called "cot- 

 ters," and build them up in that way, 

 and tier up; if you want to tier jtou 

 have to use additional "cotters" to en- 

 able you to build up so as not to have 

 the rain too bad in the hive. 



For out-of-door wintering there is 

 nothing equal to that kind of hive, I 

 think, though some, of course, do use 

 the single-walled hive and put them 

 in dry goods boxes, and pack leaves 

 around them, and all that sort of 

 thing — tar-paper, and so on; but if I 

 were going to winter bees out-of-doors 

 I would not think of using anything 

 else but the double-walled hive in this 

 section of the country. 



Pres. York — How many people use 

 double- walled hives? [Four.] 



Mr. Wilcox — Mr. Whitney has intro- 

 duced a subject there that is not di- 

 rectly applicable to double-walled 

 hives; I agree with him perfectly. 

 There is no issue to be taken. I simply 

 stated they were better for early 

 spring, preserving even temperature. 

 When I -iproduce comb honey I have 

 a box without top or bottom to set 

 over, resting on the rim to protect 

 them; it makes them double- walled so 

 far as the upper story or supers are 

 concerned. I never put in extra cases 

 before the middle of June. 



Mr. Whitney — We were instructed, 

 generally, to put them on as soon as 



