(i'J FIFTY YEARS AMONG- THE BEES 



indeed there is not so very much danger if the hold is further 

 baclv and the abdomen gets a little squeeze. 



Then the thumb and finger are slid up off the thorax, at the 

 same time pressed together, and this gives me a grip on the 

 wings, when she is lifted from the comb, fairly caught (Fig. 22). 



All this is done with the right hand, generally, although 

 occasionally she is caught with the left hand. At any rate, she 

 is now shifted to the left hand, and held between the thumb 

 and finger, back up, head and thorax between thumb and finger, 

 head pointing to the left, ready to clip (Fig. 23). 



CLIPPING THE QUEBN. 



Then one blade of the scissors is slipped under the two 

 wings of one side, and they are cut off as short as they can 

 conveniently be clipped (Fig. 24). 



The queen will be just as helpless about flying if only the 

 larger wing on one side is clipped, and clipping the one wing 

 will not mar her looks so much, but when a queen is scurrying 

 across a comb, or when you get just a glimpse of her in the 

 luve, it is much easier to tell at a glance that she is clipped if 

 both wings on one side are cut off. 



AIA'ANTAGB OF CLIPPING. 



Although nowadays the practice of clipping has become 

 quite general, there are a few who doubt its advisability. T 

 would not like to disjiense with clipping if J kept only one 

 a]iiary and were on hand all the time, and with out-apiaries and 

 no one to watch them it seems a necessity. If a colony swarms 

 with a cliijped cjueen, it cannot go off. True, the queen may 

 possibly be lost, but i( is better to lose the queen than to lose 

 both bees and queen. 



If there were no other reason for it, I should want my 

 queens clipped for the sake of keeping a proper record of them. 

 A colony, for example, distinguishes itself by storing more than 

 any other colony. I want to breed next s|iring from the queen 

 of lliat colony. But she maj' be superseded in the fall after that 

 big harvest, and if she is not clipped there is no way for me to 

 tell in the following season whether she has been superseded or 



