HIVING BEES CLIPPING QUEENS. 97 



on a small limb which can be readily cut off, it can be laid down in front 

 of the new hive, which should have a full- width entrance or be raised 

 up in front. The bees will go trooping in, but if not fast enough gentle 

 urging of the rear guard with a feather will hasten matters. If the 

 bees have clustered on a branch which it is desirable to preserve, yet 

 where the hive can conveniently be placed directly under the cluster 

 and close to it, the swarm may be shaken into the hive at once (fig. 67); 

 or the hive may be located on the stand it is to occupy and the bees 

 shaken into a large basket or into a regular swarn catcher and poured 

 in front of the hive. If the cluster is on the body of the tree it will be 

 necessary to place the hive near and smoke or brush the bees into it. 

 They will go up more readily than down, and may often be dipped with 

 a small tin dipper or a wooden spoon and poured in front of the hive. 

 Whatever plan be pursued, expedition is advisable, and it is best before 

 leaving them to see that nearly all of the bees are inside of the hive; at 

 least no clusters, however small, should be left on the tree, as the queen 

 might be among those left behind, in which case the swarm would desert 

 the new hive and return to the tree or go wherever the queen had 

 settled, or, failing to find her, would return to the hive whence they 

 had issued, unless meanwhile some other swarm should issue, which they 

 would be likely to join. A few bees flying about or crawling excitedly 

 over the spot from which the main part of the swarm has been removed 

 need not be heeded. They will find their way back to the stand from 

 which they came. As soon as the swarm is fairly within the new hive 

 the latter should be carried to its permanent stand, and well shaded 

 and ventilated. It is better policy, however, to place the hive contain- 

 ing the first swarm on the stand of the parent colony at once, removing 

 the latter to a new location. The new swarm, having the old queen, 

 with nearly all of the flight bees, will be in prime condition for storing 

 honey, so that supers may be placed on it as soon as it has made a fair 

 start in its new home that is, on the second or third day after the 

 swarm was hived. If there are uncompleted supers on the parent col- 

 ony which has been removed, they should be lifted over to the new hive 

 on the second or third day, as the parent colony, having parted with so 

 many of its workers, will riot be able to store at once. But the new 

 swarm, placed in a clean hive with starters only, will be in shape to store 

 in sections at once and produce the whitest combs and honey which the 

 source of the yield will permit. 



CLIPPING QUEENS. 



To prevent swarms from absconding and to facilitate the work of 

 hiving them, as well as to keep track more easily of the ages of queens, 

 many persons prefer to clip the wings of their queens as soon as mated. 

 The first season one of the large or primary wings is clipped half away; 

 at the opening of the second season the other large wing, and the third 

 season an additional clip is taken from one of the large wings, and with 



