844 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



HOW TO FIND A QUEEN IN A SECTIONAL HIVE 

 WITHOUT HANDLING FRAMES. 



We will give the modus operandi of clip- 

 ping queens, for the benefit of certain ones 

 who can not see how queens could be found, 

 etc., without handling frames. 



First, we will blow a little smoke into the 

 hive- entrance; insert a hive-tool into the en- 

 trance. An upward jerk loosens the hive 

 from the bottom-board. Tip the hive up on 

 end and blow a little smoke in between the 

 combs from the bottom. Now place the hive 

 back on the bottom-board; quickly separate 

 the brood sections, removing the top one, 

 which contains the bees and queen, placing 

 it on an empty hive-body or a box; remove the 

 cover; and if the queen is not seen by glanc- 

 ing quickly over the top-bars of the brood- 

 frames, look on the under side of the cover; 

 if she is not there, place a queen-excluder on 

 the lower brood-section. Now place the 

 brood-section, having your bees and queen 

 on the queen-excluder. A few puffs of smoke 

 from the top down between the combs will 

 quickly drive the bees below, leaving the 

 queen on the excluder. You can now take 

 your time to pick her up. 



CLIPPING QUEENS. 



There are several methods of clipping. 

 We take the queen by the wings with the 

 thumb and tinger of the right hand; transfer 

 to the left hand, letting her grasp the end of 

 the second finger with her feet; gently close 

 the thumb and front finger against her tho- 

 rax, letting the abdomen hang down across 

 the nail of the second linger. With a pair 

 of sharp scissors clip the lace from the wing 

 diagonally, so as not to cut the bone. A 

 qu<ien looks crippled with her wing cut square 

 off; and, besides, it must injure her. The 

 time required to catch and clip a queen by 

 this method is about two minutes. 



Having all our queens clipped, and care- 

 fully noted the condition of each colony as 

 to numerical strength of bees, amount of 

 brood, and also of honey, the condition of 

 each colony is marked by placing a stone on 

 the cover, the location of the stone on the 

 cover telling at a glance the exact condition 

 of each colony in the apiary. We find, by 

 taking an inventory of our colonies, that we 

 have 50 good strong colonies; 50 fair to me- 

 dium ones, and 50 fair to light ones, and 2 

 are queenless. All the light ones were of the 



lOlnn^' 



Via. 1. — FINDING QUEENS IN SECTIONAL HIVKS WITHOUT IlANDLINCi FRAMES, 



The first operation, as shown in this illustration, is to tip up the front of the hive from the bottom-board 

 and blow a few whiffs of smoke between the combs. The object of this is to drive the queen to the upper part 

 of the hive. A glance at the illustration in the last issue, showing the construction of the sectional hive, will 

 make it clear that there is an unobstructed passageway on account of the very narrow top and bottom-bars. 



