r/Beekeeping Wiki
Queen Clipping
Controversial… we know
Introduction
Queen clipping is the act of removing a small portion of a queen’s wing to prevent her from being able to effectively fly. There are a few aspects of this that need to cover
How To Clip A Queen
- Take the queen from the colony and place her into a marking cage
- A crown of thorns is not a good way to do this. You need one with the bars that go across the top (see below)
- Sqush her against the bars of the cage
- Carefully take get one of the wings into a position where you can access it using some needle nose scissors
- Clip off 50% of one of the larger wings
- Release her back into the colony
If you are comfortable handling queens by hand, you can do it whilst handling her, but you must be extremely careful not to damage her legs. If you damage her legs, the colony will see her as maimed and supersede her.
FAQ on clipping
Does It Stop Them Swarming
No.
When a colony swarms, they will follow the queen. When the queen fails to fly, the swarm will end up in a heap on the floor with the queen. After some time of repeatedly trying to get up and go, they will give up and return to the hive. However, their instint to swarm will not be quashed by this hiccough. They will wait for the first virgin to emerge, and proceed to swarm anyway.
When you find a colony with capped swarm cells and no queen, you must either:
- Figure out if they have attempted to swarm by removing all queen cells and checking for eggs
- Performing a split by removing flying bees or brood from the colony and letting both sides raise a new queen.
- Render them hopelessly queenless, and then introduce a new queen (though this may not quash their urge to swarm this year)
Does This Hurt The Queen
No.
Whilst this topic is very much for debate, a queen’s wing has no nerve endings. She does not feel this and the colony will not see her as maimed by clipping.
Why Would You Clip?
If you are in an urban environment and want to be sure that your colony won’t invade your neighbors house, a clipped queen gives you some “leeway” on managing swarm impulse. It gives you a bit more time to manage them before they do so, as it takes longer for them to leave with the prime swarm with a virgin queen.
If you can’t inspect your hives weekly during swarming season. In this case clipping might be a good idea as, again, it gives you a bit more time to inspect and manage swarming impulse between each inspection.
Essentially, it gives you more time to manage them, which can be helpful in circumstances where you don’t want to lose foraging force or annoy neighbors.
Summary
We get that it’s controversial. We aren’t here to judge. We’re here to give you information so that you can make your own judgements - if you want to clip, or not clip, that’s up to you.