NATURAL INCREASE. 
141 
We have already learnt that, after fecundation, the 
queen flies only at swarming time. “ Wing-clipping,’’ 
as it is termed, therefore, in no way interferes with 
the queen’s natural movements, the one case mentioned 
being excepted. When a swarm issues, she, in her 
attempt to soar with the merry throng, only falls to 
the ground in front of her hive, where the bee-keeper 
finds her making abortive hops, and may then secure 
his fugitive bees in the way just previously detailed. 
But the practical out-working of this arrangement is 
not always so beautifully convenient as the theory 
might suggest. No swarm can be lost, it is true, 
but the queen generally will be if the alighting- 
board of the hive is not continued to the ground, 
or if the bee-keeper be not at hand to take his- 
part ; and then the returning bees will rear a number 
of princesses, to possibly spoil his stock by leading off 
colonies one after the other, each of which is far 
more likely to be irrecoverable than the prime swarm 
accompanied by a full-winged queen. By reference 
to page 135, Vol. I., we find that the wings receive 
nutrition during the whole life of the bee, and that 
both nerves and large tracheae pass into them. The 
removal of the wing may, therefore, not be so absolutely 
unimportant as some assume ; although, judging from 
analogy, I am of opinion that it is not prejudicial, and 
that Professor Cook’s suggestion, that the queen may 
be made even more vigorous through the excision, 
“ as useless organs are always nourished at the ex- 
pense of the organism,” is quite accurate. Much, how- 
ever, turns upon the ultimate condition of the divided 
trachea, and this, I believe, rarely closes. Many who 
