834 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



CLIPPING QUEENS' WINGS. 



" Say, Doolittle, what about clipping 

 queens? Neighbor Brown says he doesn't 

 believe in it. He says that it is too much 

 bother to hunt up the queen, and that it is 

 too delicate a job to clip her wings when 

 she is found, and that there is more harm 

 than good in doing it anyway. So I come 

 over to see what you would say." 



" While there may be a grain of truth in 

 what your neighbor tells you, yet when we 

 come to ' count noses' the greatest weight of 

 evidence from the ' dollar-and-cent ' apia- 

 rists of the country is in favor of clipping 

 queens' wings." 



" What reasons have you to offer for so 

 doing? " 



" By having the wings of all queens clip- 

 ped, you have the bees perfectly under your 

 control, and can handle them as you wish, 

 separating them with pleasure when two or 

 more swarms cluster together, and hive 

 them without climbing trees, etc., on the re- 

 turning plan, when they come singly, they 

 virtually hiving themselves." 



" What is that? Tell me something about 

 the plan." 



" In using this plan all you have to do 

 when the swarm issues is to step to the en- 

 trance of the hive with a little wire-cloth 

 cage into which the queen is let run, when 

 the cage is stopped and laid in some con- 

 venient place. The old hive is now moved 

 to a new stand, and a hive fitted for a new 

 colony set in its place. In from a. few min- 

 utes to half an hour the bees miss their 

 queen and come back to their supposed old 

 home, where they expect to find her and the 

 hive as it was when they went out. On 

 changing hives the queen is placed near the 

 entrance, so that, as soon as the bees re- 

 turn, the)' may find her, and not scatter 

 about the apiary to other hives, as they 

 sometimes will if they do not readily find 

 her. As they return they will commence to 

 run into the new hive with fanning wings, 

 when the queen is liberated and goes in 

 with them." 



" Well, now, if it will work like that, no 

 wonder that you like it. How long have 

 you used this plan? " 



"I have followed this plan for nearly a 

 third of a century, and know it to be a good 

 one, as good yields of honey will testify — no 

 climbing of trees, cutting off limbs, or lug- 

 ging a cumbersome basket or swarming- 

 box about. It is straightforward. Let me 

 briefly state it again: Remove the old hive 

 to a new stand, put the new hive in its 

 place, and the returning swarms hive them- 



selves with little or no trouble, save the re- 

 leasing of the queen." 



" That is nice, surely; but is that all the 

 reason you have for clipping queens' 

 wings? " 



" I have several besides this, one of which 

 is I clip the larger part of the wings off, 

 say two-thirds of all four of the wings, so 

 that I may the more readily see her, now 

 that my eyes are growing dim. In making 

 nuclei, changing frames of brood and bees, 

 extracting, making swarms by shaking, 

 etc., if you find the queen you can always 

 know that she is just where she belongs and 

 not in some place where she ought not to 

 be. And by having her wings cut short 

 you can see her abdomen as soon as your 

 eyes strike the side of the comb she is on." 



"'That is a good thought also, and one 

 that would help me much, for I have often 

 hunted half an hour or more for a queen, 

 and finally gave up in disgust because I 

 could not find her. Tell me more of these 

 reasons. They explain the situation better 

 than I thought it possible." 



" Of course you have heard of the old and 

 main reason for clipping the wings of 

 queens, namely, there is no loss of bees 

 from their going to the woods." 



"No. I am only a beginner, and neigh- 

 bor Brown gave no hint of this." 



" That bees do go to the woods, or for 

 parts unknown, all can assure themselves 

 by reading the reports given in our various 

 bee-papers from time to time, if they do not 

 know the same from actual experience. The 

 bees may try for the woods, and they often 

 do; but as soon as they miss their queen, 

 back they come, for they realize that swarm- 

 ing is of no purpose to them unless they 

 have a queen with them to repopulate their 

 home after the bees composing the swarm 

 die of old age. Many a time have I had a 

 swarm start for the woods or some unknown 

 place, and be gone from sight and hearing 

 for some little time; but as soon as they 

 really missed their mother, back they 

 would come, setting up a joyful hum when 

 they found her." 



" That is the best of all you have told me, 

 and I am convinced that the clipping side 

 has the best of the argument. But tell me 

 how to find a queen and how to clip her 

 after being found." 



" The time of the year in which we un- 

 dertake this matter has much to do with the 

 pleasure of the work. If we wait till just 

 as swarming time is upon us, and attempt 

 to hunt up a queen in a hive that is over- 

 flowing with bees, and especially one that 

 will probably swarm in a day or two; when 

 the queen has ceased her laying pretty 

 much, so that a burden of eggs need not 

 hinder her from flying with the swarm, and 

 thus cause her to become no larger than 

 she was when unfertile, we might well 

 speak of the matter as a 'bother,' as did 

 your neighbor; for to find a queen, under 

 such circumstances, often balfles the most 

 experienced apiarist. But if we do the 

 work in fruit-bloom, when there are com- 



