THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



421 



they required it ; but the bees having 

 to work tlieir way through their corab, 

 he thought, made them take to tlie 

 queen. lie concluded by saying lie 

 would have much pleasure in propos- 

 ing a vote of thanks to Mr. Blow for 

 his most interesting paper, and also 

 for the trouble he had taken to visit 

 Cyprus, and enlighten them on the 

 way to manage the Cyprian bee. 



Mr. Jackson seconded the motion, 

 remarking that not only the Associa- 

 tion but the whole community were 

 greatly indebted to Mr. Blow for the 

 perseverance and energy be had dis 



played in bringing a colony of the 

 Cyprian bees to this country. 



The motion was unanimously agreed 

 to, the Chairman remarking that they 

 were indebted to the Secretary, Mr. 

 Peel, for introducing such a useful 

 member as Mr. Blow to the Associa- 

 tion. 



Mr. Blow replied, observing that he 

 had not lost more than twenty per 

 cent, of the colonies on the road home. 

 He had seen Mr. Benton's apiary, 

 and what had been said about it in 

 the American bee papers was quite 

 true ; he had a very large apiary there, 

 having a large house and groimds for 

 its management. With regard to 

 queen cells, Mr. Benton had told him 

 that he frequently saw as many as 

 fifty or sixty queen-cells raised from 

 one colony. 



Mr. Feel said one great advantage 

 of the present discussion was that it 

 elicited subjects for future papers, 

 and he should be glad to hear that 

 any of the gentlemen present were 

 gomg to give a paper next month. 



Mr. Stewart proposed a vote of 

 thanks to the two gentlemen who had 

 occupied the chair. Mr. Glennie 

 seconded the motion. He said that 

 Mr. Walker some years ago had made 

 some experiments on himself with a 

 view of ascertaining if it were possi- 

 ble to become inoculated with the 

 sting of a bee ; he had allowed him- 

 self to be stung a hundred times. He 

 had the same experience as Mr. 

 Walker, that the sting of the bee did 

 not hurt one so much when he has 

 been inoculated. 



Mr. Sissons said it would render 

 the shows more attractive if an addi- 

 tion to the prizes were given for the 

 best examples of Cyprian, Ligurian, 

 and black bees. There were some 

 prizes for the handsomest queen in 

 the department. He mentioned that 

 the sting of the Cyprian bee was much 

 more painful than that of the English 

 bee. 



Examine the Date following your 

 name on the wrapper label of this 

 paper ; it indicates the end of the 

 month to which you have paid your 

 subscription on the Bee Journal. 



1^ The postal law makes the taking 

 of a newspaper and the refusal to pay 

 for the same, theft, and any person 

 guilty of such action is liable to crim- 

 inal proceedings the same as though 

 he had stolen goods to the amount of 

 the subscription. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Clipping Queen's Wing.— The Ameri- 

 can Agriculturist gives the following 

 on this subject : 



It has been asserted that it injures 

 the queen to have her wings clipped. 

 This IS not true. Structurally, the 

 wing is very simple ; it consists of a 

 thin membrane, spread over veins 

 which are firm, and consists of a dou- 

 ble tube, one inside the other. The 

 inner tube carries the air, and the 

 outer the blood to nourish tlie wing. 

 Clipping has been practiced by many 

 of our best apiarists for years, and no 

 one has detected the least harm from 

 it. Ants do the same thing by their 

 queens, and for the same purpose. 

 The advantage of this practice is 

 great. There is no danger of losing a 

 colony. The bees will come forth 

 from the hive, and the queen will, as 

 usual, attempt to follow, but is un- 

 able to go with the swarm. The bees 

 will generally cluster, though they 

 may not ; and as soon as they lind 

 that the queen is missing, will go 

 back to the hive. The queen may get 

 so far from the hive that she cannot 

 return, but this is the loss of the 

 queen, and is far less than the loss of 

 a strong colony. In five cases out of 

 six the queen will return all right. 



This practice not only saves bees, 

 but time as well. The hiving of 

 swarms is often a great task, and 

 when they alight, as they sometimes 

 do, at the very top of a tall tree, it is 

 well nigh impossible. This matter 

 becomes still more serious when 

 several colonies come forth at once. 

 They often cluster all together, and 

 the trouble of separation and properly 

 hiving them is great. If the queen's 

 wing is clipped, all of this is saved. 

 One has only to go to the front of the 

 hive, and as the queen comes forth, 

 which is usually late in the exit, pick 

 her up and put her in a cage ; a tum- 

 bler turned over her in the new hive 

 will do. Next remove the old hive 

 a few feet temporarily, and put the 

 new hive containing the queen on the 

 old stand. It is well to fill the new 

 hive witli foundation, and to add one 

 frame of brood, in all stages, from the 

 old hive. The bees will soon come to 

 the new hive, and when all have 

 entered, the new hive may be put in 

 the desired place, and the old one re- 

 turned to its old stand. At nightfall, 

 liberate the queen, and all is done. If 

 it is desired to prevent any further 

 swarming, we have only to examine 

 the old hive, now nearly empty of 

 bees, and destroy all of the queen 

 cells but one, which should always be 

 the largest. In this way hiving takes 

 but a small amount of time and labor. 



The best time to clip the queen's 

 wing is when she commences laying. 

 As soon as eggs are seen in the worker 

 cells, which will be about eight days 

 after the queen leaves the cell, we 



should clip the queen, as then there 

 are few bees, and it is easy to find 

 her. If the wing is clipped before 

 there are eggs, very likely she may 

 not have mated. The queen only 

 mates on the wing. 



Until one has had some experience, 

 the clipping better be done in-doors, 

 before a window ; if the queen escapes 

 there will be no danger of losing her. 

 She will tiy to the window, and is 

 easily caught. Catch the queen by 

 the wings with the right hand, and 

 let her feet rest on the left hand, tak- 

 ing care not to press her abdomen. 

 She will not use her sting. With one 

 of the fingers of the left hand, on 

 which she is now resting, press down 

 on her feet, so as to hold her. Then 

 take a pair of small scissors, held in 

 the now liberated right hand, and 

 carefully cut off about one-third of 

 one of the front wings. As the queen 

 is resting on her feet, there will be 

 little danger of cutting them. For 

 years we have always clipped all of 

 our queens, and have experienced 

 only advantage. We could not think 

 of keeping bees, and not practice this 

 method. 



Title to Fugitive Swarms.— The 



Philadelphia Record gives the follow- 

 ing item relating to the capture and 

 ownership of fugitive swarms of bees, 

 which we reprint, as it is a question 

 often brought up by bee-keepers : 



Magistrate Krickbaum's knowledge 

 of the law was put to the test one day 

 last week to determine an ownership 

 of a swarm of bees that settled on a 

 tree near the house of Mrs. Flanagan, 

 on Chew street, Germantown. The 

 busy honeymakers were hived by Mrs. 

 Flanagan after a fruitless attempt to 

 find their owner. At this juncture, 

 John Taylor appeared upon the scene, 

 claimed the bees as the property of 

 his father-in-law, and proceeded to 

 take them away bodily. The bees 

 objected to this procedure, and gave 

 Taylor such a warm reception that he 

 beat a hasty retreat. He soon after 

 succeeded in enticing them into a 

 thicket and carried them away. Then 

 Mrs. Flanagan sought legal advice 

 and obtained a warrant for Taylor's 

 arrest on the charge of larceny, the 

 law saying that ownership in swarm- 

 ing bees is vested in the original pos- 

 sessor only so long as he can keep 

 them in sight. The affair was settled 

 by Taylor surrendering the bees. 



Absconding Swarms.— The Califor- 

 nia Apiculturist remarks as follows on 

 this subject : 



The great number of absconding 

 swarms in this section of country are 

 remarkable— never has there been so 

 many known before. One man in- 

 forms us that he has captured 32, 

 another 20, another 13, and many 

 others various numbers. These have 

 been captured mostly by placing hives 

 and boxes out upon the sides of the 

 mountains or in tree tops. One gen- 

 tleman says that he had a number of 

 hives piled up near his house; his at- 



