30 STATE BOAED OF AGRICULTUKB. 



queen is introduced, they not infrequently destroy her in a few days 

 or a week, or fail to properly feed the young. As a rule a colony 

 containing lajang workers is of too little value to try to save and 

 should be united with some normal colony. 



It is not necessary to destroy queen cells when introducing by the 

 distress method, but if a virgin queen (young unmated queen) is in 

 the hive she ■nill probably destroy the new one, or if conditions and 

 season favor a swarm may issue. 



CLIPPING QUEENS. 



For the convenience of the bee-keeper at swarming time, all queens 

 should have their wings clipped. As the queens use their wings in 

 helping themselves into and out of cells when laying, it is not wise 

 to cut both pairs of wings. It will be found sufficient and best to 

 snip only the tips from the wings of one side. The queen may be 

 able to fly a very little, but not enough to enable her to go far or to 

 rise to some inaccessible limb with the swarm. 



HANDLING BEES. 



Bees are more easily handled in the forenoon than later. At such 

 time most of the field bees are out and the young bees in the hive 

 are not as troublesome as the older or field bees. Very young bees, 

 however, do sometimes have a faculty for running wildly over the 

 combs, particularly when the older bees are present only in small 

 numbers. This action often bothers a novice when he is trying to 

 find a queen. 



An excellent practice followed by many bee-keepers is to look 

 through every hive each spring, removing poor combs, scraping out 

 all accumulation of propolis, substituting sound, well nailed bodies, 

 floors, covers, etc., for any which may need repairs or paint. The 

 procedure is to remove a colony from its stand and put in its place 

 a clean floor and body and one by one lift the frames from the hive 

 with the bees, scrape off the propolis and then put them into the 

 clean hive. Keep the combs in the same order they occupied in the 

 old hive. If any poor and unoccupied combs are removed add the 



