QUEENS 
705 
further fart that such queens do as well as 
those not clipped, would seem to show that 
no detrimental results follow. 
HOW TO CLIP A QUEEN’S WINGS. 
There are several ways of accomplishing- 
this. One plan is to grasp the queen by 
the wings with the right hand, in the usual 
manner. With the thumb and forefinger 
of left hand, take hold of her waist, or 
thorax. In this way she can be held very 
securely and safely, leaving her legs as 
well as her wings entirely free. With a 
pair of slender-pointed embroidery scissors 
'(or any kind of scissors if these are not 
obtainable) clip oft both wings on one side 
only, being careful not to cut too close. 
This accomplished, drop her gently between 
two frames of brood; but in no case let her 
fall more than an inch; for a queen during 
the height of the egg-laying season is liable 
to be injured if handled roughly. Some 
prefer, after picking up the queen, to 
grasp her by the legs; but this is liable to 
pull one or more legs off unless done just 
right, and therefore the first-mentioned 
plan is recommended. 
Before any one of these plans is at¬ 
tempted, if one has had no experience he 
should first practice on drones. If these 
are not to be found, worker bees should be 
picked up by the wings until one becomes 
reasonably expert; but a worker should 
not be put between the thumb and finger 
of the other hand, as one will run a good 
chance of being stung. For this part of 
the work drones should be procured. Then, 
when one can do both operations well, he 
can try a queen. Even then the attempt 
should be made on one'of not much value, 
23 
as it is a nice piece of work to do it well. 
Sometimes in an outyard, when a pair oL' 
scissors is not to be had, a sharp blade of a 
pocketknife can be used. This is passed 
under the wing in such a way as to cause 
it to bear directly upon the edge of the 
blade. The thumb is now pressed down 
upon the wing over the blade, and then 
drawn back and forth seesaw fashion, per¬ 
haps two or three times. If the knife is 
sharp, the wing will be severed with two or 
three strokes. If it is dull, 
the queen should be laid 
on her back, still holding 
her between the thumb and 
finger of the left hand so 
that her wing will bear di- 
. reetly upon a hive-cover or 
any other piece of board 
or wood. The edge of the 
\Nw knife should be brought to 
bear upon the wing, when 
a slight pressure will cause 
the blade to pass thru it. 
During these operations 
care should be taken to handle a queen 
only by the wings or the thorax. This way 
avoids all danger of hurting her. One 
should be careful not to press the abdomen 
of any queen. 
HOW QUEENS LAY TWO KINDS OF EGGS. 
That queens lay two kinds of eggs no 
one now is inclined to dispute, since the 
experiments with the microscope have de¬ 
cided the matter so clearly, as given under 
Drones. Suppose a young queen goes out 
to meet the drones so late in the fall or so 
early in the spring that there are none; 
what is the consequence? Sometimes she 
will never lay at all; but frequently she 
commences to lay when three or four weeks 
old, and her eggs produce only drones. In 
fact, she can produce no other eggs, having 
never been fertilized. How shall such queens 
be distinguished from fertile ones? 
No one can decide positively concerning 
them, until their brood is ready to seal up; 
then one can know by the round, raised 
cappings of the brood, like bullets laid on 
a board, as explained under Drones. (See 
Brood, particularly large illustration of 
worker and drone brood.) One can give a 
pretty good guess by noticing the way in 
