Many clipped queens still fly off. There is a huge difference between a 40% clip and a 75% clip. 40% clip and she is gone. 75% clip and she makes it a few feet into the yard. And if your not around, she just will to die that night or the next time it rains. Clipping to me is a waste unless your checking your yards daily anyways. And if you are in your yard daily, then how opening up the hive every now and doing something before the hive swarms.
It's kind of like the beekeeper who upon inspection can see eggs and larvae. But will continue to plod through the hive frame after frame, until that specially marked queen is found. And what beyond the information that a frame can tell you will you gain? Nothing! Whether the queen still has the mark, is a different queen, or is the same queen but the mark removed, nothing changes. It has little to do with anything other than the beekeepers desire to feel all good about themselves in finding the queen. I can understand being in AHB territory. But for many, looking for that marked queen just equates into a prolonged inspection ignoring all the other cues that can tell you about everything you can tell by actually seeing the queen. Opening a hive usually means finding the queen for many. The inspection just is not complete without seeing her.
Clipping wings are used as a crutch for the poor beekeeper who has no swarm management skills. Or lacks the desire to actually open a hive every now and then. It's like saying "I'll just get a clipped queen and then sit back and wait for her to end up in the grass" as if anything positive will come about from it anyways.
Stop clipping and marking queens, and actually become a beekeeper... ;)
Topic: Purchasing Clipped Queens (Read 2342 times)