keith pierce
Field Bee
Here are a few photos of one of my apis mellifera mellifera queens been clipped. photos taken by my friend Kieran Harnett.
I am so nervous to handle and clip as I worry I may damage a leg. All marked but still to take that next step. Must get cracking!
How much you take off the wings will not bother them
Mucky scissors. Didn't your friend have a clean pair?
Why the sudden craze for clipping?
I thought we were moving forward on this, suddenly it's back?
Green, isn't that a rather large and magnificent Queen for so early this year?
Why the disapproval? Clipping is standard practice for many of us. No harm comes to Q, and if they catch you out and swarm at least you don't lose loads of bees.
Watch the re-run of Martha Kearney's Wonder of Bees at 10.30 p.m. tomorrow (Sunday) on BBC4 and you'll see Heidi holding forth on what's wrong with queen clipping.
I recall the essence of her argument was "why would you want to stop the colony reproducing when bees are on the decline?" Go figure!
CVB
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