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CUTTING QUEENS’ WINGS. 
_ Some bee-keepers practise the plan of clipping the queen’s wing after she 
is fertilised, in order to prevent her leaving with a swarm ;and as no swarm will 
leave without a queen, it lessens the chance of losing it if the queen’s wing is 
cut, for the bees will return to the hive on not finding the queen with them ; 
but if the bee-keeper do not happen to see the bees swarm the plan loses its 
adyantages, as they will probably swarm out with a young queen from one of 
the queen-cells. But where the bees can be seen to swarm, clipping the 
wings of the queen is convenient sometimes, as all that has to be done is to 
cage the queen as she is hopping about the entrance to the hive ; and then to 
move the hive to a new location, putting a new hive with frames of foundation 
or empty combs in its place, and, when the returning bees are going in nicely, 
to release the queen and let her go in with them. If it be not desirable to 
move the old hive, the caged queen may be tied on to a small branch and held 
near the swarm, when they will soon cluster on it, and may be carried to 
where they are wanted. 
INTRODUCING QUEENS. 
Tt sometimes happens that it is wished to change the queen—say, to givea 
hive of black bees an Italian queen, or to replace one that has been lost. ‘To 
do this, the inferior queen must be removed, and the other introduced by 
means of an introducing cage, for if the new queen is placed directly in the 
hive the bees will very likely kill her by what is called ‘balling the queen.” But 
when put in a cage, the bees will liberate the queen themselves by eating out 
the candy that is in one end of the introducing cage. 
DIRECT METHOD OF INTRODUCING. 
There is a way to introduce the queen without the use of a cage, and is as 
follows :—Remove the old queen, and keep the one to be introduced in a cage 
py herself and without food for several hours; thenabout twenty-four hours after 
removing the old queen, and at about 9 o’clock in the evening, go with a 
lantern to the hive, and gently lift off the cover and allow the new queen to 
run down between the combs. 
ITALIAN BEES. 
Poryts oF SUPERIORITY. — 
1. They possess longer tongues, and so can gather honey from flowers that 
are useless to the black bee. 
2. They are more active, and with the same opportunities will gather much 
more honey. ; 
3. They work -earlier and later. ‘This is true not only of the day but of 
the season. 
4. They are far better able to protect their hives against robbers. 
5, They arealmost proof against the ravages of the bee-moth larve. 
6. The queen is decidedly more prolific. 
7, The queen is more readily found. 
8. The bees are more disposed to adhere to the combs while being 
handled. 
9. They are less liable to rob than other bees. 
10. And they are far more amiable. 
Pure Italian bees should have three vellow bands on the abdomen, 
although the first band, next to the thorax, is ‘sometimes difficult to see; but a 
fair test of the purity is the uniformity of the markings of the worker bees of 
a whole colony. 
BEES NOT TO BE FED NEAR HIVES. 
Bees should not be fed with honey or sugar near their hives, asit may start 
them robbing, and this is specially the case when there is a scarcity of honey ; 
put the food should be put some distance away and not in large quantities in 
