FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 67 



glance over the under surface of the cover as it is re- 

 moved from the hive. Once in a great while I have 

 known the queen after no little searching to be on the 

 shoulder or some other part of the operator. How she 

 managed to get there I don't know. 



CATCHING THE QUEEN. "^ 



When the queen is found, she must be caught before 

 she is clipped. I want to catch her by the thorax or just 

 back of the thorax, and if she is in motion, by the time 

 I reach for the thorax it will have passed along out of 

 reach. So I make a reach more as if attempting to catch 

 her by the head, and the movements she makes is likely to 

 bring my thumb and finger down on each side of her 

 thorax, and in that position she is held firmly on the 

 comb (Fig. 21). There is no danger of hurting the 

 queen by giving a pretty hard squeeze on the thorax, and 

 indeed there is not so very much danger if the hold is 

 farther back and the abdomen gets a little squeeze. 



Then the thumb and finger are slid up of¥ the thorax, 

 at the same time pressed together, and this gives me a 

 grip on the wings, when she is lifted from the comb, 

 fairly caught (Fig. 22). 



All this is done with the right hand, generally, al- 

 though occasionally she is caught with the left hand. At 

 any rate, she is now shifted to the left hand, and held 

 between the thumb and finger, back up, head and thorax 

 between thumb and finger, head pointing to the left, ready 

 to clip (Fig. 23). 



CLIPPING THE QUEEN. 



Then one blade of the scissors is slipped under the 

 two wings of one side, and they are cut ofT as short as 

 they can conveniently be clipped (Fig. 24). 



The queen will be just as helpless about flying if only 

 the larger wing on one side is clipped, and clipping the 

 one wing will not mar her looks so much, but when a 



