^STAeOs 



^T BEE:PAPf^ 

 IN AMERICA- 



40th YEAR, 



CHICAGO, ILL, OCTOBER II, 1900, 



No, 41. 



^^ Editorial Comments, ^i^ i 



nailing Clipt Queens.— In the department of "Ques- 

 tions and Answers," a correspondent inquires why the 

 wings of the Dr. Miller premium queens were clipt before 

 being sent out, and he is entitled to a fuller answer than he 

 there receives. 



It should be frankly stated in the outset that it is to be 

 regretted that it was not distinctly mentioned in advance 

 that the premium queens would be clipt. Then there would 

 have been no chance for misunderstanding. But one does 

 not always think of everything in advance. 



It would have been easier, of course, to have sent out 

 the queens without clipping, but after careful consideration 

 it was concluded that the best interests of those receiving 

 the queens would be served by having the queens clipt be- 

 fore mailing. It was believed that the large majority would 

 prefer to have their queens clipt in advance — a belief that 

 seems warranted bj' the fact that only one of the whole 

 number receiving the queens has entered any protest. 



This brings up the general subject of clipping all 

 queens previous to mailing, a practice that is beginning to 

 prevail to a small extent, and it may be well to give some 

 reasons why it should more generally prevail. The number 

 of those who prefer to have queens clipt has been con- 

 stantly on the increase, and among those who receive 

 queens by mail are no doubt many who have had little or 

 no experience in clipping queens, but still prefer them with- 

 out whole wings. Our correspondent says: "It seems to 

 me that if the purchaser wishes the wings clipt, he can do 

 it." It would be at much inconvenience that a purchaser 

 could clip a queen on arrival, for she is in an introducing- 

 cage, and if taken out for the purpose of clipping, there are 

 chances that she might decide to make use of her wings be- 

 fore the clipping was done. Instead of being to the trouble 

 of taking the queen out of the cage and then putting her 

 back into the cage after being clipt, the purchaser would 

 naturally prefer that the operation should be performed by 

 the one who cages her for mailing, for it is comparatively 

 little trouble to clip her while she is in his fingers for 

 caging. 



Aside from the generally familiar reasons why a queen 

 should be clipt so that she may not decamp with a swarm, 

 there is a very important reason why a queen received by 

 mail should be clipt, even if the purchaser should prefer 

 that all the rest of his queens should be unclipt. It is that 

 clipping is necessary for the purpose of identification. A 

 queen is received thru the mail, and after the purchaser has 

 had sufficient time to note results, he finds no improvement 

 in his stock. It is important that he should know for cer- 

 tain that the queen in the hive is the identical queen he re- 

 ceived by mail. It is difficult in most cases, if not impos- 



sible, to be entirely certain whether the queen in a hive is 

 the one introduced or some other. The cases are by no 

 means rare in which two queens are in a hive, a mother 

 and a superseding daughter. The bee-keeper kills one, but 

 the other remains to kill the new queen after she is put in- 

 the hive. Sometimes an unsuspected queen-cell is present,, 

 and a queen from that takes possession. It sometimes hap- 

 pens that a virgin, or even a laying queen, enters from 

 some other hive, after the bee-keeper has made sure, as he 

 thinks, of the impossibility of the presence of anything in 

 the shape of a queen. In all these cases it is highly im- 

 portant that the new queen be clipt, so that she may be 

 positively identified. 



A Stray Straw in last Gleanings in Bee-Culture is right 

 to the point, and is as foilows : 



August 18th I took a queen from a nucleus and gave it 

 a caged queen-cell due to hatch Aug. 22d. Aug. 31st I gave 

 it a frame of young brood. Sept. 18th I found eggs and 

 brood, and on the same comb, not two inches apart, two 

 queens, one a virgin by her looks. The case looks a little 

 like this : When the frame of brood was given Aug. 31st, 

 the bees started a queen-cell as a precautionary measure, 

 because their queen was not yet laying, and then allowed 

 both to continue. But did you ever know of such an excep- 

 tion before ? Now, suppose these had been black queens, 

 and I had sent to a queen-breeder for an Italian, which I 

 introduced after killing one of the blacks without seeing 

 the other. The Italian would be killed, and three weeks 

 later I would find only blacks hatching, and would feel 

 sure a black queen had been sent me. 



[This can and probably does explain how, in one way, 

 a good tested queen turns out to be no better than a com- 

 mon black. Latelj' we have been clipping our best queens, 

 and only this week we had a case where a customer reported 

 that an imported we had sent him was nothing but a hybrid. 

 We wrote back, and askt if the queen now in the hive had a 

 clipt wing. We have not yet heard from him, but are 

 morally certain that one of two things is true — either that 

 he does not know how to distinguish hybrids from pure 

 Italians, or that the queen has got supplanted in the man- 

 ner you speak of. It has very often happened, when we 

 have ferreted the matter clear down, that there has been an 

 exchange of queens. The customer was entirely honest, 

 and supposed that we had, of course, made some mistake. — 

 Editor.] 



The question arises: If the A. I. Root Co., think it ad- 

 visable that the " best queens " be clipt before mailing, is 

 it not equally desirable for queens of less value ? 



Extracting-Combs and (Jnfinisht Sections. — Getting- 

 such cleaned up by the bees in the fall is considered by 

 some to be an unnecessary labor. Before acting too largely 

 on that belief, it may be well for the novice to remember 

 that such cleaning up by the bees is at least safe, and that 

 it will tiof result in having anything sour in the combs, nor 

 in having granules to help granulation in the honey the 

 following season. 



If a large number of sections or extracting-combs are 

 to be cleaned, the most rapid way to have it done is to use 

 the B. Taylor plan, and expose all at once as fully as pos- 

 sible in the open air for the bees to rob out. While this is 



