THI 
BustraUan J3eekeqpel'6 , 
TOUHNAL, 
Yol. III. — No. 12.] NOVEMBER 1889. [Price 6d. 
(Bbitorial 
BEE GOSSIP. 
Clipping Queens’ Wings. — This practice is 
adopted by a good many American apiculturists, 
chiefly with the view of preventing swarms from 
absconding, an event that is not at all uncommon 
in apiaries near well-wooded country, especially 
where there are already wild bees. In our last 
number, page 168, is an extract concerning this 
plan. A large number of beekeepers, however, 
condemn the practice, first because they consider 
a queen with clipped wings as defective, secondly 
because as many or more queens are lost in con- 
sequence of not being able to fly, as probable 
absconding swarms are saved. For our part we 
think it much a matter of opinion, although we 
have never adopted the method. We had a large 
swarm issue on September 24th, which clustered 
on a shrub near, but soon returned to the hive 1 
Seeing a small cluster of bees on the ground near 
the hive we searched and found ihe queen, whose 
wings were so ragged she could not fly. She was 
put on the alighting board, and she crawled in. 
In the evening she was found on the ground 
again, and again put in. Next morning she was 
out again with a . small company of bees. She 
was no doubt an old queen, but as she had a 
populous hive, which sent oil a grand swarm, 
she could not have been past her laying powers. 
The weather became too bad to examine the 
stock, but the probability is swarming had been 
delayed till a young queen had hatched, and the 
old one had persisted in going out in any weather 
in preference to being killed by her own daughter. 
If queens’ wings are clipped, the ground about 
and near the hives must be bare of grass or much 
herbage, or it will be more trouble to find her 
than to chase an absconding swarm, for if not 
found at once, the bees that remain with her 
will often not be sufficient to attract attention. 
Mr. Cheshire, in his recent admirable work on 
Bees and Beekeeping, speaking of Queen Clipping, 
says, although it is largely in vogue in America 
some of the largest owners are against it, and he 
expresses his belief that queens thus maimed are 
more likely to be displaced by their subjects 
than those that are perfect. He considers pro- 
perly conducted artificial gwarming more 
advantageous in most respects, than queen 
clipping. 
Honey Boards. — Slotted honey boards with 
queen excluding zinc are coming largely into use, 
and our experience with them last year was so 
satisfactory that we intend using them in every 
stock we work for surplus in the super. They 
prevent brace combs between tops of frames and 
sections, and there is far less trouble in handling 
both frames and supers with these honey boards 
than without ; the tops of the frames are cleaner 
and freer from propolis, and a laying queen 
cannot get into our sections and spoil them by 
depositing brood in them. Young, umnated 
queens can generally get through the zinc spaces 
quite easily, andinslances have occurred, in our 
own apiary, of a young queen having mated, 
going into the super through the zinc spaces, 
but remaining there became too laige to return, 
and made her brood nest in the super. 
Raising Queens in Full Stock. — 
Some American beekeepers have been experi- 
menting on raising several queens in one stock, 
having at the same time a laying queen brood 
reai mg in tue same hive. This is done by a 
special arrangement of the hive, with double 
division boards of zinc perforated to allow of the 
passage of worker bees, but of neither fertile 
or unfertilised queens. Many early experi- 
ments were failures, because only a Single 
division board of perforated zinc was used, 
through which the queens could detect each 
other's presence, but it is stated that when 
double divisions of zinc, with a quarter of an 
inch interspace, were used, young queens 
were reared and hatched continuously, in a full 
working colony. Of course they were removed 
to nuclei, or other hives for mating as they were 
hatched. 
