226 NATURAL SWARMING. 



SO that the queen runs no risk of getting lost in the grass. 

 We abandoned it, after having tried it, for several years. But 

 some very good Apiarists hold that clipping the queens' wings 

 is desirable. Doctor C. C. Miller, one of America's most prac- 

 tical and successful Apiarists, in his "Forty Years Among the 

 Bees,'' already mentioned by us, says: 



"Although nowadays the practice of clipping has become 

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

 would not dispense with clipping if I kept only one apiary 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 clipped queen, it cannot go off. True, the queen may pos- 

 sibly get lost, but it 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 spring from the queen of that_ colony. But she may 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 superseded in the fall after that big harvest, and if she is 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 sea- 

 son whether she has been superseded or not. Indeed I can 

 hardly see how it is possible to keep proper track of a queen 

 without having her clipped." 



435. Where a gr^at many colonies are kept, several 

 swarms may issue at the same time, and unite in a single clus- 

 ter. 



If two swarms cluster together, they may be advantageously 

 kept, together, if abundant room for storing surplus honey 

 can be given them. Large quantities of honey are generally 

 obtained from such colonies, if they issue early, and the sea- 

 son is favorable. 



"When more than two swarms have clustered together, it is 

 better to divide them. Let us suppose that three have united. 

 After putting three hives near each other, so as to form a 

 triangle, the sack ( 429 ) or box, in which the bees have been 

 captured, is shaken on a cloth just between the three. If most 

 of the bees seem to go into the same hive, this should be re- 



