THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 139 



yet. It is my custom to exchange bottom boards in the spring when 

 I make my first round, also to clip queens. It was during this round 

 I had the following experience: 



The queen was found on the third frame and so you will under- 

 stand the circumstances better, I will describe my method of clip- 

 ping. The queen is always picked up by the wings, letting her 

 catch with her feet on end of my index finger of left hand, when 

 I clip her right wing. She is now picked up by her left wing and 

 carefully placed on top of frames that have been looked over. In 

 this case I looked through the hive and made record, closed it up, 

 lifted it from hive stand, put in its place a clean bottom board. 

 I loosened hive from old bottom board and set it on clean bottom 

 where it originally set. With this done I saw on old bottom board 

 a ball of bees and found upon smoking them off, their own queen — 

 dead. I wonder if others have lost queens at clipping time not 

 knowing what became of them (as I should not have known had I 

 not changed bottom boards). Another experience: Last June, 

 after having this experience, I clipped another young queen. As 

 I placed her on top of the frames I noticed the bees acted rather 

 strange, and thought best to look after the queen. I found her 

 "balled," smoked the bees off and caged the queen until the next 

 day, when she was released and is still with her swarm. 



Since that time to avoid such loss the queen is put back upon 

 the frame she is taken from, while it is still out of the hive. 



Yesterday (April 25th), while at this same work, in one case 

 the bees "pounced upon" one queen very angrily, but soon quieted 

 down, as there were not many bees on the frame. 



Has anyone else had such an experience, or is it because I 

 work bare-handed and carry the odor from one hive to the next? 



(Friend Jones is going through an experience most beginners 

 go through. He is so enthusiastically interested in his bees that 

 it is impossible for him to let them alone out of season. It is those 

 very enthusiastic beekeepers who eventually make our most suc- 

 cessful honey producers, so I would not discourage the handling 

 of bees at any time for experimental purposes. If bees are handled 

 during the spring months, when no honey is coming in from nat- 

 ural sources, it ought not be on a large scale, just a few colonies 

 to see how they are coming along. 



In the northern or cold portion of the States and Canada, bees 

 better be left entirely alone during April. See to it the previous 

 fall that they have an abundance of stores to last them until the 

 main honey flow is on the next June, then let them entirely alone, 

 for by so doing you will do the bees a kindness, save one's self a 



