I clip wings, the last few years I have just taken an angular cut on one 
top wing so that it is still longer than the wing below, and leaving the 
thicker 'veins' on the longer side.  A couple times I've witnessed 
queens flying a few feet at a time like that.

Results vary, since the hives are near the house I often find the queen; 
most often she is within a foot or two of the hive.  A few times she has 
hopped to a low bush, a few times she has made it to a high branch. 
Sometimes she has returned to the hive and a virgin has swarmed in a few 
days, sometimes she has disappeared and the virgin swarms.  The Russian 
stock characteristics have dominated in my motley and diverse survivor 
colonies.  I have noticed that the Russian virgins are very tolerant of 
each other, good when you are in Siberia I guess, but it makes for 
multiple swarms and a greater age variation in swarm cells.

The best thing about clipping is what I call the lunch hour swarm.  I 
get home for lunch, see the swarm in progress or just landed, check for 
a likely hive, find and cage the queen in a box with some brood comb, 
and still have time to eat and get back to work on time. I come home 
from work and release the queen at sundown and feed pollen substitute 
and sugar paste.  With 25 to 50 hives I get at least a few of those a 
year, more than I usually lose that are too high to catch or completely 
missed.  Of course I also mark them, tho I stick to white since it's 
easier to find in the grass.  Next year I'm going to try clipping a 
little less, tho I think age and weight variables are a major factor 
too.  Most of my swarms are from hives I'm deliberately crowding to get 
queen cells, so I have an idea who to watch.

On 4/25/2011 11:03 AM, John & Christy Horton wrote:
> Speaking of this, I have wondered if one could cut the wings in such a
> way as to allow the queen to fly out but couldnt fly far so that it
> would be easy to find the swarm.
>
> John Horton


Carolyn in SC
http://community.webshots.com/user/woodwidgeon

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