MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 175when the swarm returns, to let the queen run into the hive withthe swarm.Q. If the queen's wings are clipped and queen-cells are cut outevery ten days, will that prevent swarming?A. The clipping of the queen's wings will not make a particleof difference about a swarm issuing. A swarm will issue exactlythe same as if the wings were whole. Cutting out. queencellsevery ten days may make a great deal of difference and itmay make a very little. In the ordinary course of events a primeswarm 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, thebees will be likely to start fresh cells, but this second time theymay not wait for the sealing of cells, and the oftener you cutout cells the more eager they may be to swarm, so that finallya swarm may issue immediately after you have cut out cells.Sometimes, however, cutting out cells once or twice in the seasonmay prevent swarming entirely. I think the character ofthe baes has something to do in the case. Some bees aremore 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 littlebit.Queens, Chilled.—Q. Will a queen that was chilled comingthrough the mails be all right next spring?A. Hardly; but if you want to breed from her you may getgood stock, even if she lays so poorly as to be of little value forhoney.Queens, Color of.—Q. Do queens change color or get muchlarger?A. There is considerable change in the appearance of a queen.After she is three or four days old she is smaller than when shefirst leaves the cell, andwill be larger after she gets to laying. Aqueen often is darker after having gone through the mails.Q. I am told that "the color of a queen has nothing to dowith the bees she will rear;" that "pure Italian queens may beyellow, leather-colored, or jet black, but their bees will be yellow."Is this so?A. That's not so very far from the truth. Some of the bestqueens are quite dark, although their workers are yellow.ItalianQueens Destroying Cells.—Q. Will you explain what is to mestill a contradictory mysticism? (a) It is said that the first queen.