Queen Clipping Scissors

01 · HOW THE CUT IS MADE

Forewing, and one side only

Hold the queen by the thorax with one hand and with the other trim a third to a half of the forewing —the big front one— on one side only. Never both: unbalanced, she loses her footing on the comb. Never the hindwing, which is the small one, and never flush with the thorax.

02 · WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES

It doesn't stop the swarm, it stops you losing it

The colony swarms all the same. The queen leaves with the swarm, cannot fly, drops in front of the entrance and the workers end up going back in. You gain days to intervene, not immunity: as soon as the first virgin emerges the colony will try again, and she can fly. It does not replace checking queen cells every 7-9 days.

03 · WHEN TO DO IT

Before swarm fever, not during it

The window is a mated queen already in lay, with the colony calm and before swarm fever starts: once queen cells are sealed you are late. Our own orders bear it out —48 % of the units we have shipped go out between February and April, and not one leaves between August and October.

04 · AS AN AGE MARK

It tells odd years from even, no more

Alternating the right and left wing from one year to the next only separates odd years from even ones: two years of resolution. A queen from two seasons back and one from this one carry the same clipped wing. For real age there is the international colour code —white, yellow, red, green and blue—, which gives five.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The serious limit is a legal one. Regulation (EU) 2018/848, Annex II, Part II, point 1.9.6.4 (b) forbids «mutilations such as clipping the wings of queen bees»: with a certified organic apiary this tool puts you outside the rules. And the cut cannot be undone, because the wing does not grow back.