t% 555 



PUBLISI BD MONTHLY BY THE W T FALCONER MANFG CO 



VOL. IV. 



f^PRIL, 1894. 



NO. 4. 



The Advantages and Disad- 

 vantage off Clipped Queens. 



l:v i 'HAS. ii. TfilES. 



As the above question seems to be 

 very unsettled in the minds of quite 

 a number of bee keepers, a few re- 

 marks may be of some benefit to snme 

 novice, just why a met bod should 

 meet with success with mie and fail 

 with another is hard to say, vet quite 

 a number of our best and largest 

 honey pr iducers prefer clipped queens, 

 while others of equal experience are 

 opposed to them. He will, therefore, 

 try to consider both sides of the ques- 

 tion. We will first look at the ad- 

 vantages of clipped queens. The 

 greatest advantage is doubtless at 

 swarming time. How easy a bee- 

 keeper feels when a half dozen or 

 more swarms come out at or about the 

 same time, when he knows that his 

 queens are all clipped, is only known 

 by (hose that have tried this method. 

 And they can be handled and hived 

 iu just one-fourth of the time, in fact 

 you need not handle the bees at all, 

 only the queen need be handled or 

 caged. Again if you should not be 

 on hand when a swarm with a clipped 

 queen issues, you may be sure your 

 bees will all come back, while if not 



clipped they will be sure to make for 

 the woods, then if your bees cluster 

 on top of the highest tree, on a fence 

 post, or on a low shrub where they 

 are handy is all the same, as you need 

 not climb trees, jar posts or cut limbs, 

 but only cage the queen. Place an 

 empty hive on the old stand with the 

 caged queen in front and in a very 

 short time your bees will be in the 

 hive. As soon as the bees ret urn the 

 queen should be re leased, when usually 

 all will be lovely. 



Another advantage is that if you 

 keep a record of the age of your 

 queens, you may always be sure of 

 their age, for if the bees should su- 

 perceed her you may know it at once. 

 Usually it does uot pay to allow a 

 queen to stay in a hive until the bees 

 see fit. to superceed her unless .-he is 

 something very fine, and is used for 

 breeding. Young queens are always 

 preferred by me for many reasons. 

 There are many more advantages in 

 clipped queens, but we uow look at 

 some of the disadvantages of clipped 

 queens. First and foremost would be 

 the occasional loss of a queen, but 

 this loss need not be great even if the 

 apiarist is not present. There are 

 two things necessary to present this 



