244 Clipping the Queen. 
yet to see the first indication that the above is true. Still, 
if the queen essays to go with the swarm, and if the apiarist 
is not at hand, she will sometimes be lost, never regaining 
the hive ; but in this case the bees will be saved, as ¢hey 
will return without fail. I always mean to be so watchful, 
keeping my hives shaded, giving ample room, and dividing 
or increasing, as to prevent naturalswarming. Sometimes, 
however with the closest vigilance swarms will issue; then 
we may save much labor and vexation if we have the wing 
of the queen clipped. Many of our farmers are now keep- 
ing bees with marked success and large profits, who could 
not continue at all except for this practice. Mr. George 
Grimm keeps about eighty colonies of bees, and says he 
only works ten days in the year. But he clips the queens’ 
wings and his wife does the hiving. 
Some apiarists clip one primary wing the first year, the 
secondary the second year, the other primary the third, and 
if age of the queen permits, the remaining wing the fourth 
year. Yet, such data, with other matters of interest and 
importance, better be kept on a slate or card, and firmly 
attached to the hive, or else kept in a record opposite the 
number of the hive. The time required to find the queen 
is sufficient argument against the “queen-wing record.” 
This is not an argument against the once clipping of the 
queen’s wings, for, in the nucleus hives, queens are readily 
found, and even in full colonies this is not very difficult, 
especially if we keep Italians or any of the other races of 
yellow bees. It will be best, even though we have to look 
up black queens, in full colonies. The loss of one good 
colony, or the vexatious trouble of separating two or three 
swarms which had clustered together, and finding each 
queen, or the hiving of a colony perched high up on some 
towering tree, would soon vanquish this argument of time. 
To clip the queen’s wing, which we must never do until 
she commences to lay eggs, take hold of her wings with 
the right’ thumb and index finger—never grasp her body, 
especially her abdomen, as this will be very apt to injure 
her—raise her off the comb, then turn from the bees, place 
her gently on the left hand, and press on her feet with the 
left thumb sufficiently to hold her. Now with the right 
