As a swarm prevention strategy, clipping a queen's wing has problems.
   A slight clip may not prevent flying, and even if flying is prevented,
   the colony cam swarm within a day or two, with a virgin queen which
   emerges after the old queen's departure is frustrated. The beekeeper is
   then left with the remnants after the swarm has left, but with an old
   queen instead of a young one, hardly an advantage. For these reasons and
   because of the "disfigurement" of clipping, I had little good to say
   about clipping, until last  year.
 
   I had about 80 colonies to monitor, to try to find differences including
   tracheal mite resistance, between 9 different lines of bees. After all
   the work of setting up colonies to control various variables, it was
   essential to know that a colony continued to have the known, marked
   queen of a specific line. Over the 2 years of the study, some queens
   were replaced, or failed, or the colonies died over winter. Others
   simply lost their marks (perhaps a difference in paint quality,
   application technique, or bee behavior (very hygenic bees tend to remove
   queen marks). By the time I noticed the marks dissappearing, there was
   not enough time to find all the queens and replenish the marks. It would
   have been valuable to have had the queens clipped, a permanent, though
   not unique, identifier of the test stocks. I did manage to clip a few,
   when I found them with a fragment of their mark still present, but I
   didn't get them all.
 
   It was annoying in the second year, to have several of the surviving
   colonies, having queens with no mark, and not being  able to use them
   (or their information) because their pedigree could not be confirmed.
   This was especially true for "significant" colonies (potential
   breeders).
 
   In future for such cases, I will clip (about 1/4 off either left or
   right forewing, using good, small scissors).
 
   But not for swarm control.
 
 
   Kerry Clark, Apiculture Specialist
   B.C. Ministry of Agriculture
   1201 103 Ave
   Dawson Creek B.C.
        V1G 4J2  CANADA          Tel (604) 784-2225     fax (604) 784-2299
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