Clipping Queen's Wing. 



177 



carefully to get the young queens as soon as hatched, must 

 guard it carefully as moths are apt to get in, and, finally, 

 unless great pains are taken, this method will give us inferior 

 queens. Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, one of our best queen breed- 

 ers, thinks very highly of the lamp nursery. 



Some bee-keepers use a cage (Fig. 80) with projecting pins 

 which are pushed into the comb, so that they hold the cage. A 



Fig. 80. 



cell is put into each of these, and then they may be put into 

 any hive. Of course the bees can not destroy the cell, as they 

 can not get at it. Dr. Jewell Davis' queen nursery consists of 

 a frame filled with such cages which can be hung in any hive. 

 I have tried both, and prefer this to the lamp nursery. 



SHALL WE CLIP THE QUEEN's WIKG ? 



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; but never before, 

 that in no case she shall lead the colony away to parts unknown. 

 This does not injure the queen, as some have claimed. Gen- 

 eral Adair once stated that such treatment injured the queen, 

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

 by so excellent a naturalist as Dr. Packard. Yet I am 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 



