122 



THE PRACTICAL RKF. GUIDE. 



Another method may be followed : — Hang the frame, upon 

 which is the queen, upon a comb stand (172) and pick off the 

 queen by the wings with the finger and thumb of the right 

 hand, as shown (Fig. 83, A) ; then gently take her, by the 

 thorax, in the fingers of the left hand, clip the wing (Fig. 

 83, B), return her to the brood nest, and place the frame in 

 its former position in the hive. In either case the operation 



Fiff. 83. B 



CLIPPING QUEEX'.S WIXR. 



is a delicate one, and should be carefully performed, avoiding 

 all risk of injuring the queen by any pressure upon her 

 abdomen. By this means, also, the ages of queens may be 

 recorded upon their persons ; the wings on one side being 

 clipped in their first year; those on the other side, in their 

 second year ; and, in their third season, when there are no 

 longer any wings to clip, a young queen should be given to 

 the stock (281). It goes without saying that queens should 

 not have their wings clipped before they have been mated. 

 The risk of losing swarms is avoided also by Artificial 

 Swarming (222). 



213. The Parent Stock Seven or eight days after the issue 



of the prime swarm, the first of the virgin queens emerges 

 from her cell, and, if the stock decides against further swarm- 

 ing, the young queen, assisted by the bees, destroys the royal 

 nymphs, and assumes her position as queen of the colony (199). 

 About five or seven days later, i.e., thirteen to sixteen days 

 after the issue of the prime swarm, she leaves the hive for 

 impregnation, and, usually on the twenty-first day after the 

 swarm, her eggs may be found in the cells. Although those 

 dates are only approximate, they are reliable enough to guide 

 the bee-keeper in his management. He will know, for example, 

 that, on the twenty-first day after the swarm, all worker brood 

 of the old queen will have emerged from the cells, and that 

 the young queen will have only just begun to lay. If, there- 

 fore, he desires to transfer bees and combs from skeps to 

 modern hives (253) he will select the twentieth or the twenty- 



