HIVE MANAGEMENT 93 



only. After lie has learned to handle 

 drones he may further his education by 

 learning to pick up workers by the wings 

 only without being stung. When he can 

 do this stunt he may safely proceed to 

 catch the queen and clip her wings with 

 little fear that he will cause her serious 

 injury. 



The object in removing the wings from 

 one side of the queen is exactly the same 

 that we have in mind when we clip the 

 wings of some active old hen that per- 

 sists in flying over the chicken yard 

 fence. A "clipped" queen will not be 

 able to lead out a swarm but will instead 

 hop around in front of the hive until she 

 is tired and then go back and behave her- 

 self — for a little while. 



Clipping the wings of the queen does 

 not prevent swarming, but it enables us 

 to have far better control of such swarms 

 as do issue from the hives. 



Another thing to watch for at this spring 

 inspection of the hives is disease. There 



