454 



GLEANINGS IN J5EE CULTURE. 



July 



sure tliat tiipy will all be nice ones. It is a 

 ^ood deal of labor testing a queen for (jueen- 

 rearing, and Ihey ought to bring a good 

 price, even if they are old.^Tlie terms (Ger- 

 man bees, brown bees, black i)ecs. and com- 

 mon bees, all mean one and the same thing. 

 If we could agree on some one term it would 

 be an excellent idea, but 1 do not know 

 whether the friends would all agree as to 

 what our native bees should be called.— I 

 suppose alsike clover would be called aperen- 

 jiial ; and although it may come up again 

 for several seasons, it usually runs out most- 

 ]y in three or four years.— Alfalfa is said to 

 yield considerable honey in many localities 

 in California. The bees seldom if ever work 

 on it here. 



CLIPPING QUEENS' WINGS. 



SHALL WE HAVK THEM CLlI'l'ED OK NOT CLIPPEU? 



F I mistake not, I have seen poniowhero in 

 Gleanings, within a year, that friend Root 

 did not flip the wings of his queens, and be- 

 lieved the i)ractice to be a bad one. As far as 

 friend Root is concerned, together with the 

 way he runs his apiary, for the sole puriiose of sell- 

 ing- queens, and bees by the pound, perhaps such 

 advice is all well enough; but when it comes to the 

 majority of apiarists, especially those working for 

 comb honey, where more or less natural swarming 

 is sure to be done, I can not help but think the ad- 

 vice is not sound. Why I speak of the clipping of 

 queens' wings at this time is that, had I not kept 

 the wings of ray <iueens clii)ped, I should have lost 

 a valuable queen and colony of bees last Sabbath. 



A few days ago I looked over all my strongest col- 

 onies of bees to see if any needed feeding, as we 

 always have a honey-dearth here after the fruit- 

 bloom is over and before white clover opens. In 

 thus going over the yard I failed to tlnd any prep- 

 arations being made for swarming. It often hap- 

 pens that a colony which is well supplied with 

 stores will prepare for and swarm during this hon- 

 ey-dearth, and for this reason I carefully examined 

 all such, so that I might know if any watch of the 

 apiary for swarms would be needed. As I found 

 no signs of swarming, no watch^was kept. Imagine 

 raj' surprise, but two days later, just after we re- 

 turned from church, to hear Mrs. D. call out, "The 

 bees are swarming!" 



Upon going to the apiai-y I lounrl the bees rush- 

 ing out of my best colony by the thousand. The 

 queen was soon found, and placed in a wire-cloth 

 cage, which was hung on the small twig of an apple- 

 tree which the bees were beginning to cluster upon. 

 I now went to the shoj) and got six frames of comb 

 to put in a hive which stood in the apiary, and prc^- 

 parcd the same for the reception of the swarm, 

 when I went to the house for a moment while the 

 bees were pflnishing clustering. As soon as I 

 thought they were sufliciently clustered I started to 

 hive them; but beftjre I got where they were I saw 

 that they were just commencing to uncluster, pre- 

 paratory to leaving." I.hurried to them; but before 

 1 had gone two rods they were on the wing, and in 

 a moment more were taking a "bee-line" across 

 the fields for the woods, at a rate which defied the 

 ordinary speed of most pqople who run. After be- 

 ing gone for some time they found they had left the 

 queen behind, when jjrescntly they cumc stringing 



back, and began clustering on the same twig about 

 the(jueen; and after clustering the second time, 

 they were hived. Now, had not this queen been 

 dipped I should certainly have lost a ((ueen valued 

 at .'?10.o;), and a good swarm of bees, which, if the 

 season jiroves good, will produce me $.5.00 to $10.03 

 worth of section honey. Supposing she had not 

 been clipped, and they had come out an hour or 

 more earlier (it was two o'clock when they 

 swarmed), as swarms as a rule usually do, 1 should 

 probably have concluded that the queen had been 

 superseded when next I examined them, and been 

 none the wiser regarding the swarm, unless I had 

 inspected the colony before they had filled up with 

 young bees. If they had come out a few hours 

 earlier, as the (lueeu was clipped she without doubt 

 would have returned to the hive Avhen the bees 

 came back, and swarmed the next time when I was 

 at home. 



A good many seem to think it is troublesome to 

 hive swarms where the queen is clipped; but with 

 me I can do it full more easily than I can when the 

 queen goes with the swarm. Rut, sui)pose it were, 

 as some think, could I not well att'ord to be at con- 

 siderable trouble for the »I.').00 or *3,).t:0 I have 

 saved in this ease';' 



The complete control you ha\c of an a|)iary where 

 all the queens have clipped wings, gives a man a 

 certain confidence which is worth far more to ntr 

 than all the trouble which might occur to a novice 

 would amount to. Another thing: Should the bees 

 sometimes bother by mixing up or entering Avrong 

 hi\es, etc., there is always a comforting thouM'ht 

 about it, which is, the bees are always in the ajiiary. 

 where thej' will be bringing in the honey just as 

 well as if they wore exactly where you at first de- 

 sired. With Prof. Cook, Dr. C. C. Miller, and others, 

 I advise all working for comb honej- to clip the 

 queens' wings. Iti— G. M. Doolittle, SO— 40. 



Borodino, ' N. V. 



No doubt if 1 were raising comb honey, 

 friend I).. I would have my queens clipped ; 

 but 1 believe there are (juite a number of 

 comb-honey raisers who decide they do not 

 want any nioreclipped(|ueens. The objections 

 are. lirst. that a good many facts seem to in- 

 dicate tlial bees sometimes (lis))lace a (lueen 

 after a winu has been clipi)ed, oi' at least at- 

 tempt to displace her. I am inclined to 

 think this is a mistake ; but as a good many 

 seem to have got the notion into their heads, 

 we have been obliged to stop clipping ours, 

 when sending them out for sale. Quite a 

 number of oiu' customers have declared that 

 they will not have a clipped (pieen at any 

 price. Second, if I am not mistaken a queen 

 is often lost where she is clipped, where she 

 would not have beeij lost if she had had the 

 use of her wings. Suppose the swarm had 

 come out while you were at church, are you 

 sure a clipped qiieeu would have got back 

 into the hive? or what does hapi>en usually 

 when a swarm comes out with a clipped 

 (pu'eii. when no one is arotuid':' I liave sev- 

 eral times followed them (piite a piece across 

 the apiary wheie they had hop])ed along. I 

 found them l)y the few bees lliat were buzz- 

 ing along the track they had taken ; but I 

 liave reason to think that a good many were 

 lost in that way when they were never found. 

 You may say that we "had better lose the 

 ((ueen oiil.\. than to lose the (|ueen,bees. and 



