1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



85 



have gone before me in this tongue-measuring 

 business. — Ed. ] 



ABOUT CLIPPING QUEENS. 

 A Good Record. 



BY MRS. A. J. BARBER. 



I have noticed in several of the bee-papers 

 lately, items about clipping queens' wings, 

 and how to do it. I did not suppose there 

 were so many ways of doing it, and I was sur- 

 prised that, of all the different plans describ- 

 ed, none used mine. Perhaps many are doing 

 so ; but as none of them have told about it 

 ( perhaps thinking it too simple to need descrip- 

 tion) I will tell how I have been doing it for 

 the last five or six years. It seems so much 

 easier and more satisfactory than any other 

 way that I never think of trying any other 

 method. 



When I find the queen I rest the comb on 

 the edge of the hive and hold the upper end 

 of it in such a way that the comb slants a little 

 away from me. When I can get the queen 

 near the center of the comb I start her toward 

 the upper end of it ; and by following her 

 with my scissors I slip the blade under her 

 wing as she runs, and take it off smooth and 

 clean in much less time than it would take me 

 to catch her in my fingers. One soon gets 

 used to following her motions with the hand, 

 and after a few trials the clipping can be done 

 nicely without even touching the queen except 

 with the scissors. I don't believe they know 

 what has happened, or that any thing has 

 happened, judging by their actions. One 

 needs a pair of embroidery scissors, and 

 they should be keen and sharp. 



One day last spring I found and clipped 31 

 queens before noon. 



I have had but one accident, and that was 

 several years ago when I was nervous, and a 

 little afraid of the bees. That time I cut both 

 wings and legs. 



I tried the pocket-knife method, but had to 

 turn my queen loose on a comb, and clip her 

 with the scissors after all. 



I think it much easier and better to clip all 

 the wings across straight, about half their 

 length. As I do not sell queens, nor keep 

 them for exhibition purposes, I like to clip 

 them close enough to insure their being found 

 easily when a swarm comes out. I usually 

 have a boy watching, and it doesn't pay to 

 leave a queen's wings long enough so that she 

 can make any use of them or the boy will not 

 find her. 



I don't see why so many are troubled with 

 swarms clustering before returning to the hive 

 to look for their queen. I don't remember 

 ever having had them do so but twice. Usual- 

 ly they are coming back by the time the queen 

 is caged and the new hive put in place of the 

 old one. Perhaps different strains of bees 

 have different habits. When mine cluster I 

 am always reasonably sure that they have met 

 a young queen from some other place or hive, 

 and treat them accordingly. 



Mancos, Colo., Nov. 17. 



[Your method is all right for women with a 

 delicate touch and steady nerves. But imag- 

 ine a man, who is so bungling that he can't 

 thread a needle, trying to clip a queen's wings 

 while free on the comb, with a pair of em- 

 broidery scissors! Why, he would probably 

 decapitate the best queen he had. The aver- 

 age man, if I am any judge, would better first 

 catch the queen and then clip. 



But do I understand that you clip both pairs 

 of wings for the purpose of better identifica- 

 tion during swarming time ? Of course, if you 

 seldom pick up a queen for any purpose then 

 it wouldn't matter much if all the wings were 

 cropped. 



But, say ; your record of finding and clip- 

 ping 31 queens in one forenoon is not bad. I 

 doubt if, in the case of strong colonies, as I 

 take it yours were, it has been surpassed. — 

 Ed.] 



VALUE OF BREEDING-STOCK. 



Can a Queen be Worth 5200 ? The Question of In- 

 breeding. 



BY H. X,. JEFFREY. 



Mr. Root : — On page 848, Nov. 1, you note 

 Moore's bees with //g tongue, and then you 

 refer to the editor of the American Bee-keep- 

 er calling the $200 queens an advertising 

 scheme. Now just look at this picture, not at 

 the bees. When Mercury, the Jersey bull, 

 was what would be called along in years, but 

 actually in his prime, and where his value was 

 really known, $75.00 was &ffered for his ser- 

 vice, and why ? His worth was in his ability 

 to stamp the blood qualities Hold your 

 hands up in holy horror ; for, 23 times out of 

 32, his pedigree ran back on to the cow Alphea 

 and her bull mate. Now, then, you will (or 

 I should say that others will) say that there is 

 quite a difference between a queen-bee and a 

 valuable Jersey or any other bull. Is there? 

 Not one bit. The queen, if any thing, is the 

 more valuable of the two. First, she is short- 

 er lived ; second, the ability to increase indef- 

 initely the reproductive ability is more than 

 1000 to 1, and why? Just take off your hat, 

 and get ready to say, ' ' That's not so ! " Well, 

 I'll prove it, and back it by more than 20 

 years' test in facts. 



The workers of a queen are the result of the 

 influence of the drone she mates with. Most 

 will say, " Not wholly so." I say positively 

 they are, every time. For convenience admit 

 it as a fact. Now, then, the queens from that 

 queen are the direct and full sisters to those 

 workers, the progeny of that queen. Those 

 young queens being the sisters of those work- 

 ers possess the same qualities as the workers, 

 their sisters ; consequently the drones of those 

 queens possess the imparting powers of quali- 

 ties possessed by the drone that was the fa- 

 ther of the workers and queens from that first- 

 mentioned queen ; consequently the superior 

 starting queen is just as valuable as the supe- 

 rior imprinting bull. From the bull we obtain 

 the perpetuating power of his qualities; from 

 the queen we obtain daughters to perpetuate 



