no 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1921 



round. The second advantage is the queen 

 record, and it is quite as important as the 

 other. With undipped queens we have no 

 means of recording for certain the age or 

 ability of the individual. The most seri- 

 ous objection I have heard to clipping 

 queens is the possible loss of a queen fail- 

 ing to find her way back to the hive with 

 the returning swarm. If anything this is 

 an advantage, for any queen so ungrateful 

 as to lead out a swarm after I have done 

 what I can to make her and her people 

 comfortable need expect no quarter from 

 me. "Off with her head!" She is too 

 much like swarming stock; we do not allow 

 her cells to remain to reproduce her kind 

 either if we can help it. In any case, is it 

 not better to lose the queen and save the 

 swarm than have both fly to the woods? 



There is no royal road to finding queens. 

 As the search is included in a general sur- 

 vey of brood-chamber conditions, we gen- 

 erally start at one side and look over each 

 comb in order until she is found. As in 

 other manipulations experience is a great 

 help, altho I have seen beginners who 

 learned to find them quite rapidly in their 

 first season. The main thing is good eye- 

 sight and a quiet confident manner in han- 

 dling the smoker and the combs. My sister, 

 who naturally does such particular work 

 better than I do, finds and clips hundreds 

 of queens in May without a veil and with 

 scarcely any smoke. The entrance must on 

 no account be smoked, and the hive should 

 be opened without a jar. With the least 

 possible smoke and disturbance, the first 

 comb is removed and the others examined 

 in order, always leaving a space for the 

 next one to be lifted when the last one is 

 returned. The queen is very easily fright- 

 ened and set to hiding. She may travel 

 away from you as you proceed thru the 

 liive. A glance on the next comb as it hangs 

 in the hive when you lift one out may re- 

 veal her, or she may be on what was the 

 dark side of the one just lifted. The queen 

 is most apt to be found on combs having 

 eggs or brood, or perhaps on the sunny side 

 of the hive; but there is no need to despair 

 until the last comb has been examined. I 

 seldom look over the combs a second time. 

 It keeps the hive open too long and the 

 chance of finding her is much less than the 

 first time. Next week she may be found 

 quite easily. Some queens are always hard 

 to find. When these do not show up after 

 a reasonable search the whole brood-cham- 

 ber population has to be sifted thru a queen- 

 excluder. 



To clip a queen I lift her from the comb 

 by a wing grasped between thumb and fin- 

 ger of the right hand, at the same time 

 holding the comb in my left hand with one 

 end resting on the hive. The right hand 

 may be steadied by projecting the little 

 finger against the comb while catching the 

 queen. As soon as the queen is safely lifted 

 from the comb the latter is set down quick- 

 ly to free the left hand for holding the 



queen for the clipping operation. Now 

 press the tip of the index finger of the left 

 hand gently against the under side of the 

 queen's thorax, and she will grasp it with 

 all six legs which have been sprawling in 

 the air as she was held firmly by the wing. 

 Close the thumb of the left hand on two of 

 the longer legs, not too close to the body 

 nor too tightly, and you now hold her by 

 thumb and finger of the left hand witli 

 wings up ready to be clipped. I have a 

 ])nir of short blunt pocket scissors, which 

 are always in a convenient pocket winter 

 and summer. They are useful for a great 

 many purposes, including the clipping of 

 queens. I take off two-thirds or more of 

 both wings on one side, and try to leave 

 tlie wings on the other side intact. This 

 one-sided clipping cripples a queen for fly- 

 ing more than an even trim. As the wing 

 is a dead membrane there is probably no 

 pain caused by the amputation; but the 

 man who recently advocated pulling a 

 queen 's wing out by the roots should be 

 prosecuted by the humane society. I like 

 this way of clipping because it is the way 

 I was taught, and it comes easier to me 

 than any other method. I could not bear 

 the thought of mauling a queen 's head and 

 thorax between my clumsy thumb and fin- 

 ger, after viewing the beautiful and com- 

 lex organs of sense with which they are 

 covered. The nervous strain of trying with 

 curved scissors to clip a queen, as she walks 

 about the comb, ' ' sends me clear up in the 

 air. ' ' 



The clipping record is very brief but suf- 

 ficient. We never clip a queen until she 

 has gone thru one winter, so the record of 

 each queen we clip this spring will be the 

 same: "C-21-1." When a queen is found 

 to be already clipped we look for last year's 

 record. If it is "C-20-1," the new record 

 is "C-21-2. " If for any reason last year's 

 record is not available the record is 

 "C-21-0." Unless the queen is something 

 very special either 2 or is a death sen- 

 tence, "suspended," subject to good con- 

 duct, till near the end of the honey flow. 

 Inspecting for Disease. 



This first time over the brood-chambers 

 is an opportunity for a general review of 

 conditions. A study of the brood reveals 

 the ability of the queen to carry on, and, 

 of course, we are alert for symptoms of 

 disetase. No European foul brood has 

 reached us as yet, but occasional cases of 

 American are found and have to be treated. 

 When discovered early they are treated at 

 once. When a few cells are detected in a 

 good colony during the flow, the queen is 

 removed and all cells destroyed a week 

 later. As soon as the brood has emerged 

 and when the flow is nearly over, the final 

 treatment is applied. In all cases our 

 treatment for American foul brood is the 

 same. We call it the "gasoline cure." The 

 idea is not original but is the most effectual 

 cure for this persistent disease we have 

 ever tried. The method is as follows: In 



