THOUSAND ANSWERS 175 
when the swarm returns, to let the queen run into the hive with 
the swarm. 
Q. If the queen s wings are clipped and queen-cells are cut out 
every ten days, will that prevent swarming? 
A. The clipping of the queen’s wings will not make a particle 
of difference about a swarm issuing. A swarm will issue ex- 
actly the same as if the wings were whole. Cutting out queen- 
cells every ten days may make a great deal of difference and it 
may make a very little. In the ordinary course of events a prime 
swarm is likely to issue when the first queen-cell is sealed. If, 
at any time before this, you cut out all cells that are started, the 
bees will be likely to start fresh cells, but this second time they 
may not wait for the sealing of cells, and the oftener you cut 
out cells the more eager they may be to swarm, so that finally 
a swarm may issue immediately after you have cut out cells. 
Sometimes, however, cutting out cells once or twice in the sea- 
son may prevent swarming entirely. I think the character of 
the bees has something to do in the case. Some bees are 
more given to swarming than others. 
Q. Will a queen’s wings grow again after they are clipped? 
A. A queen’s wing that is clipped will not grow again; never, 
never; no, not the least little bit. 
Queens, Chilled. — Q. Will a queen that was chilled coming 
through the mails be all right next spring? 
A. Hardly; but if you want to breed from her you may get 
good stock, even if she lays so poorly as to be of little value for 
honey. 
Queens, Color of. — Q. Do queens change color or get much 
larger? 
A. There is considerable change in the appearance of a queen. 
After she is three or four days old she is smaller than when she 
first leaves the cell, and will be larger after she gets to laying. A 
queen often is darker after having gone through the mails. 
Q. I am told that “the color of a queen has nothing to do 
with the bees she will rear;” that “pure Italian queens may be 
yellow, leather-colored, or jet black, but their bees will be yel- 
low.” Is this so? 
A. That’s not so very far from the truth. Some of the best 
Italian queens are quite dark, although their workers are yellow. 
Queens Destroying Cells. — Q. Will you explain what is to me 
still a contradictory mysticism? (a) It is said that the first queen 
