Dec. 15, 1911 



CLIPPED VERSUS UNCLIPPED QUEENS. 



eio 



A Queen's Use of Her Wings. 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



Many bee-keepers have abandoned the very 

 helpful practice of clipping their queens, and 

 others have hesitated to adopt the practice, 

 believing that clipped queens are generally 

 sujierseded. Some attribute the supersedure 

 to the mutilation of the queen, and others 

 to injury to the queen by attacks of the bees 

 after the queen is returned to them, said at- 

 tacks being attributed to odor of the oper- 

 ator's fingers contaminating the queen. 



Unquestionably, many queens are super- 

 seded soon after being clipped, and also 

 many queens are not. Now, why the dif- 

 ference ? 



First, it is not due to odor acquired; for if 

 the queen is not exceptionally timid, the 

 mere handling of her will not be noticed 

 by the bees. The writer has frequently 

 anointed queens with perspiration, saliva, 

 and sundry odorous substances, and has yet 

 to find any evidence of its bringing harm 

 to the queens. When sundry essential oils 

 were tried on workers, it was found that 

 ihese spread on them, and caused either 

 ffreat distress or death, so they were not 

 tried on queens. By every test that could 

 be thought of the odor factor was tried, and 

 the conclusion reached was that odor'did 

 not enter into the problem. 



Then queens, both clii:)ped and undipped, 

 were watched in their work, and it was not 

 long before a clue to the trouble was found, 

 and a little experimenting soon showed the 

 real cause. When a queen backs into a 

 cell to lay, her wings slide out over the sur- 

 face of the comb and balance her. As she 

 starts out, the wings materially assist her. 

 Cut her wings off close to the thorax, and 

 still she will do pretty good work; but such 

 close cutting seems in some cases to cause 

 distress to the queen — at least sundry nerv- 

 ous movements indicate that she is not act- 

 ing normally. I believe it is now deter- 

 mined that insects do not not feel pain; but 

 they do move away from pressure, pin- 

 pricks, etc., probably an act of self-protec- 

 tion solely. 



Cut one pair of wings off close to the tho- 

 rax and leave the others undisturbed, and 

 the queen works fairly well. The signs of 

 "distress " are not so apparent. But cut 

 one or both pairs of wings at about half 

 their length, or a little less, and trouble 

 quickly follows, though queens so clipped 

 evince no sign of any injury. Xow, why 

 are such queens superseded? Because they 

 are unable to fulfill their functions in a nor- 

 mal manner. First, they usually place 

 eggs irregularly — that is, they are not uni- 

 formly centered in the cells, and in some in- 

 stances are placed on the side of the cells. 

 Second, they lay much more slowly than 

 undipped queens, and all the trouble is 

 caused by the stubs of the wings. These 

 hit the edge of the cell wall as the queen 

 tries to back in, and they prevent her from 



Fig. 2. — Shaking ujj the bees in a dish pan. 



quickly and accurately placing herself as 

 she normally does. She may try to enter 

 several cells before she finally drops the on- 

 coming egg anywhere, even on to the sur- 

 face of the comb. Of course, the brood is 

 irregular, and it is usually but a short time 

 before preparations are made for raising a 

 new queen. 



If only one pair of wings are clipped, and 

 these are cut only far enough up on the 

 large wing to catch the tip of the small one, 

 no trouble will be caused the queen. Thus 

 clipped, she may fly a little but not far nor 

 high. 



Another and very excellent method of 

 dipping is to cut lengthwise of the wings, 

 taking off half the width of the lace-like 

 part of one pair. This method of cutting 

 calls for a little practice and skill, but is re- 

 ally worth the trouble. A queen so clipped 

 lays as perfectly as usual, and, furthermore, 

 looks prettier than a queen as ordinarily 

 clipped — a matter of no small consequence 

 to many persons, and often quite an item 

 in exhibitions. 



Providence, R. I. 



[Clipping is practiced among many large 

 producers. The usual custom is to clip 

 both wings close on one side. While there 

 have been stray reports questioning the ad- 

 visability of clipping, the great mass of 

 large producers practice it, and, if we are not 

 mistaken, with very satisfactory results. 

 We should be glad to get reports. — Ed.] 



