Clipping a queen’s wings- good or bad?
I don’t recommend buying queens with clipped wings, nor do I recommend clipping the wings of a queen.
The theory is that it will prevent a hive from swarming, since the queen cannot fly away with the swarm. However, when a hive really wants to swarm, I’ve seen them crawl away on the ground with the queen! Plus, a clipped queen is seen by the bees as defective, and is more prone to be replaced, or not accepted at all by the bees.