838 



GI.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



ground all their lives, they find no trouble in 

 growing it still, where it is intelligently man- 

 ' -A. I. R.] 



QUEEN-CLIPPIiNG. 

 How to Do it With a Dull or Sharp Knife. 



BY S. E. MItLER. 



Friend Erttest : — I am a little surprised by 

 a late number of Gleanings to see that you 

 and Dr. Miller do not know the correct way to 

 clip a queen's wings, so I siippose I shall have 

 to tell you both, as wt- 11 as the other readers 

 of Gleanings 



jT I am not sure whether I read this way of 

 clipping in Gleanings some years ago, or 

 whether I simply adopted it because it is the 

 surest and most convenient way, and seemed 

 to come most natural. Your way of holding 

 the queen is all right, except that I have an 

 idea you hold her upside down. Try this way 

 the next time you clip a queen : 



Hold her by the thorax between thumb and 

 first finger, with her legs or under side to- 

 ward your face, her head toward the palm of 

 your hand, and her sting pointing out away 

 from your hand. Held in this position she 

 will grapple with her feet for something to 

 get hold of, and will invariably curl her abdo- 

 men up so that her sting points about toward 

 your face, thus leaving her wings standing out 

 away from her abdomen. Now place her 

 wings on a smooth hive- cover, close to the 

 corner nearest to you (the edge of a hive-body 

 will do as well). Lay the small sharp blade 

 of a knife across her wings, give a little pres- 

 sure downward, and it is done. 



Every bee-keeper should at all times have 

 about his person a pocket-knife with at least 

 one sharp blade ; but it is not every one who 

 always has a pair of scissors in his pocket of 

 convenient size and shape for queen-clipping. 

 This latter is the main point in favor of my 

 method ; besides, there is not the least danger 

 of ever clipping a leg off, as you deliberatfly 

 place the edge of the knife -blade across her 

 wings (which are then between the blade and 



the hive), before making the clip, and there 

 is no chance of her getting a leg beneath the 

 blade. 



Now, you and the doctor try this way and 

 report. I will try to make a rough drawing, 

 which you can probably have an artist improve 

 on and illustrate if you like ; or you might go 

 through the performance and have some one 

 kodak you. 



Bluff on, Mo., Aug. 29. 



[You saw the plan which you describe, and 

 which is here illustrated, probably in the A B 

 C of Bee Culture ; for in that you will find 

 the exact modus operandi given in full. 

 While it is no new plan to Dr. Miller or my- 

 self, it is a very good one. But when we talk 

 about the best way, then in my opinion the 

 same manner of holding the queen, using 

 scissors, is better. — Ed ] 



ANOTHER METHOD OF CLIPPING. 



I noticed in Gleanings several persons 

 telling of different ways to hold queens to clip 

 them. I send you a sample of a little device 

 of my own for holding queens to clip them. 

 Any one can make them by taking a piece of 

 wire, a pair of wire- pliers, and a spike to bned 



the fork over. When I use them to catch the 

 queen I just lay the frame with queen in on 

 top of the hive, and slip the fork astraddle of 

 her back. If the fork is too close or too wide, 



