522 



Gt^ANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUNB 15 



asking the question, "Are you sure that the 

 value of long tongues for red clover may not 

 be less than their value for other plants ? " 



CUPPING QUEENS' WINGS ; WHY AND HOW. 



Are the queens all clipped ? If not, why 

 not? It's an advantage, particularly where 

 bees are kept in thickly settled localities. 

 Sometimes neighbors object to having the 

 bee-keeper enter their premises when in pur- 

 suit of his bees. While he may lawfully 

 pursue them, it will preserve better feelings if 

 he has not go to do it. 



HOW TO CL,IP. 



There are various good methods. A friend 

 in New York says his hands are calloused, and 

 it would not be safe for him to depend on the 

 sensitiveness of his finger-tips to hold a queen 

 by the thorax ; so he picks her up by the 

 wings with the left hand (thumb and fore fin- 

 ger); her majesty's wings are then in just 

 such position as to be easily severed by a sharp 

 knife, drawing it over the tip of thumb or 

 fore finger, whichever way is handiest, letting 

 her drop back on the comb or on the exposed 

 frames. 



By this method both or all wings are apt to 

 be cut, and this friend cuts them quite closely, 

 which has the advantage that such clipped 

 queens can afterward much easier be found, 

 having a snake-like appearance. 



Another New York friend practices a differ- 

 ent method. He picks up a queen by her 

 wings as in the other case, but with his right 

 hand, letting her grasp the thumb of his left 

 hand with her feet. He then brings the 

 tips of thumb and fore finger together vise-like, 

 thus fastening or holding the queen by her 

 feet. He then releases the wings and proceeds 

 to cut any one wing or all of them, as he pre- 

 fers, with a pair of scissors. 



The writer has clipped a queen " on a run," 

 sometimes ; i. e., without holding her at all, 

 simply by carefully lifting up one of her 

 wings with one blade of a pair of scissors, and 

 dropping it right there and then, while she 

 was on the comb among her attendants. 



When one practices clipping for a series of 

 years he will be surprised how many colonies 

 he will come across that have changed queens 

 unbeknown to him. Half of the queens rear- 

 ed in 1899 were found superseded this spring 

 in a large apiary in New York. We have had 

 a similar experience in our yards. Unless a 

 queen has been clipped, one can not be sure 

 of her identity. 



DR. MARTIN 



AND PAPER-COVERED 

 COVERS. 



HIVE- 



I AM pleased to introduce to our readers Dr. 

 Martin, of Mercersburg, Pa. He is a bee- 

 keeper who has been using paper-covered hive- 

 covers for a good many years. One of these 

 he sends that he has had in continuous use 

 for 12 years. Although the paper is sound 

 and good, some of the boards under it had 

 rotted out. The paper he used in this case is 

 what is known on the market as Neponset 

 red-rope roofing-paper. 



The secret of making this or any paper ans- 

 wer for covers, according to Dr. Martin, is 

 cleating the cover all around where the paper 

 is folded in such a way that the edges can not 

 be torn up. On top are driven some large- 

 headed tacks with washers. If such a cover 



DR. G. M. MARTIN. 



is thoroughly painted, at the start, and no 

 sharp instrument is allowed to come in con- 

 tact with the paper, it will probably last al- 

 most indefinitely. 



A feature of the paper that is important is 

 that it will take up a large quantity of linseed 

 oil, and therefore paint applied to it will hang 

 to it much more tenaciously than it would to 

 the same surface of metal, or even of wood. 



In the annexed engraving I present a sam- 

 ple of a cover made on Dr. Martin's plan. It 

 is nothing more nor less than a flat cover 

 made of one, two, or three pieces cleated all 

 around at the ends and sides, as shown. 

 Such a cover may also be made double (we 

 have made them) that is, of two thicknesses, 

 separated by quarter-inch strips of wood, 

 dead-air spaces between, and then the whole 

 covered with paper. I should imagine such a 

 cover would be just the thing to suit another 

 doctor, the M. D. at Marengo, 111. 



