HIVING BEES—CLIPPING QUEENS. 9% 
on a small limb which can be readily cut off, it can be laid down in front 
of the new hive, which should have a full-width entrance or be raised 
up in front. The bees will go trooping in, but if not fast enough gentle 
urging of the rear guard with a feather will hasten matters. If the 
bees have clustered on a branch which it is desirable to preserve, yet 
where the hive can conveniently be placed directly under the cluster 
and close to it, the swarm may be shaken into the hive at once (fig. 67) ; 
or the hive may be located on the stand it is to occupy and the bees 
shaken into a large basket or into a regular swarm catcher and poured 
in front of the hive. If the cluster is on the body of the tree it will be 
necessary to place the hive near and smoke or brush the bees into it. 
They will go up more readily than down, and may often be dipped with 
a small tin dipper or a wooden spoon and poured in front of the hive. 
Whatever plan be pursued, expedition is advisable, and it is best before 
leaving them to see that nearly all of the bees are inside of the hive; at 
least no clusters, however small, should be left on the tree, as the queen 
might be among those left behind, in which case the swarm would desert 
the new hive and return to the tree or go wherever the queen had 
settled, or, failing to find her, would return to the hive whence they 
had issued, unless meanwhile some other swarm should issue, which they 
would be likely to join. A few bees flying about or crawling excitedly 
over the spot from which the main part of the swarm has been removed 
need not be heeded. They will find their way back to the stand from 
which they came. AS soon as the swarm is fairly within the new hive 
the latter should be carried to its permanent stand, and well shaded 
and ventilated. It is better policy, however, to place the hive contain- 
ing the first swarm on the stand of the parent colony at once, removing 
the latter to a new location. The new swarm, having the old queen, 
with nearly all of the flight bees, will be in prime condition for storing 
honey, so that supers may be placed on it as soon as it has made a fair 
start in its new home—that is, on the second or third day after the 
swarm was hived. If there are uncompleted supers on the parent col- 
ony which has been removed, they should be lifted over to the new hive 
on the second or third day, as the parent coJony, having parted with so 
many of its workers, will not be able to store at once. But the new 
swarm, placed in a clean hive with starters only, will be in shape to store 
in sections at once and produce the whitest combs and honey which the 
source of the yield will permit. 
CLIPPING QUEENS. 
To prevent swarms from absconding and to facilitate the work of 
hiving them, as well as to keep track more easily of the ages of queens, 
many persons prefer to clip the wings of their queens as soon as mated. 
The first season one of the large or primary wings is clipped half away; 
at the opening of the second season the other large wing, and the third 
season an additional clip is taken from one of the large wings, and with 
4526—No. 1——7 
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