To prevent swarms from absconding and to facilitate the work of hiving them, as well as to keep track more easily of the ages of queens, many persons prefer to clip the wings of their queens as soon as mated. The first season one of the large or primary wings is clipped half away; at the opening of the second season the Other large wing, and the third season an additional clip is taken from one of the large wings, and with it a portion of one of the secondary or smaller wings. With finely pointed scissors this operation can be performed while the queen is loose on the combs, but there is much danger of clipping one or more of her legs also. If she be caught by her wings with the thumb and first finger of the right hand, and then grasped by the thorax with the thumb and first two fingers of the left hand, her wings can easily be reached with the scissors. It will not do to grasp the queen by the abdomen? and of course there should be but little pressure exerted on the thorax. There are some objections against clipping. The queens, being unable to fly, are liable to get lost in the grass or stray into the wrong hives when they swarm during the absence of the attendant. They certainly look unsightly when thus maimed, and occasionally the bees are more disposed to replace such queens than unmutilated ones. It is of course preferable to lose one of these occasionally rather than the whole swarm. When the queen is clipped the operation of hiving is very easy if the bee keeper is on hand to catch the queen as she falls from the entrance to the ground. When the swarm is fairly out and while the bees are still circling in the air an empty hive should be set in place of the one from which the swarm has issued. The bees, missing their queen, will soon begin to return to their old location and will shortly crowd the entrance of the new hive. When about one-fourth have entered the queen may be allowed to run in, and the treatment will then not be different from that given any newly hived swarm. AUTOMATIC HIVERS. Thus far the automatic hivers have been only partially successful, so that the experimental stage has not yet been passed; but the practical perfection of such a device is looked forward to with considerable confidence. PREVENTION OF AFTER-SWARMING.