168 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



and shaking a frame loaded with bees over the nucleus ; keep the 

 opening nearly closed, and cover the bees with a quilt. The_ 

 main caution in all this is to be sure not to get any old queen 

 in a micleus. In two or three days the queens will hatch, and 

 in a week longer will have become fertilized, and that, too, 

 in case of the first queens, by selected drones, for as yet 

 there are no other in the apiary, and the apiarist will possess 

 from ten to thirty-five queens, which will prove his best stock 

 in trade. I cannot over-estimate the advantage of ever 

 having extra queens. To secure pure mating later, we must 

 cut all drone-comb from inferior colonies, so that they shall 

 rear no drones. If drone larvae are in uncapped cells, they 

 may be killed by sprinkling the comb wilji cold water. By 

 giving the jet of water some force they may be washed out, 

 or we may throw them out with the extractor, then use the 

 comb for starters in our sections. By keeping empty frames, 

 and empty cells in the nuclei, the bees may be kept active ; 

 yet with so few bees, one cannot expect very much from the nu- 

 clei. After cutting all the queen-cells from our old hive, we 

 can again insert eggs, as above suggested, and obtain another lot 

 of cells, or, if we have a sufficient number, we can leave a 

 single queen-cell, and this colony will soon be the happy pos- 

 sessor of a queen, and just as flourishing as if the even tenor 

 of its ways had not been disturbed. 



&HALL WE CLIP THE QUEEN's WING? 



In the above operation, as in many other manipulations of 

 the hive, we shall often gain sight of the queen, and can, if 

 we desire, clip her wing, if she has met the drone, that in no 

 case she shall lead the colony away to parts unknown. This 

 does not injure the queen, as some have claimed. General 

 Adair once stated that such treatment iljjured the queen, as 

 it cut off some of the air-tubes, which view was approved by 

 so excellent a naturalist as Dr. Packard. Yet we are sure 

 that this is all a mistake. The air-tube and blood-vessel, as 

 we have seen, go to the wings to carry nourishment to these 

 members. With the wing goes the necessity of nourishment 

 and the need of the tubes. As well say that the amputation 

 of the human leg or arm would enfeeble the constitution, as 

 it would cut off the supply of blood. 



