finding the queen made easy??

[biglongdarren]

hey all.....

when next year i open my hives and cant find the queen,i have been told that if i have an old queen that i have got rid off for some reason or another and keep her in the freezer.....and that evey time i cant find the queen if i place the dead frozen/thawed queen on the top of a frame and close the hive up for a minute that when i open the hive again the living queen will be beside the dead one......anybody use this method?

 

[Moggs]

I have visions of several thousand bees below, shouting "The Queen is dead, Long Live the Queen". Sorry I couldn't be more helpful (though I have a suspicion that it sounds unlikely).

 

[For want of a better word]

A Phd there for someone!

If pherimones are the communicative channel wot queen bees use to pass information,
then the test would bee to test dead frozen queens for pherimones [ anyone lend me their electron capture device?]
Or a plastic copy of a queen could bee tried
then a plastic queen bee with pherimones
and if its a queen bee vibration communication, I am sure the microelectronics wizzkids could come up with something

However I did read that someone was sticking magnets on the backs of queens to find them??

Is this total drivvell ?... if so please feel free to treat it with the contempt you think it deserves !

 

[For want of a better word]

I have visions of several thousand bees below, shouting "The Queen is dead, Long Live the Queen". Sorry I couldn't be more helpful (though I have a suspicion that it sounds unlikely).

more likely than my posting!

 

[Dishmop]

Instant number plate recognition device.

 

[wightbees]

just paint each bee a different colour then you know what bee you are looking at , easy when you think about it

 

[RoofTops]

I suppose it might work if you could dangle a live queen in some sort of cage which protected her from the resident queen's sting whilst also letting the intruder's pheromones waft through the hive. Problems might come if the workers decide the new queen is an improvement on their current monarch and decide to stop feeding her!

I find as I get more experienced that not finding the queen becomes rarer. This is partly in my case through buying new spectacles but also though learning to read the hive so you know where she is most likely to be. For example, a comb of pollen usually marks the outside of the brood rearing area and a frame of with empty cell where the edges of the cells are slightly matt - not polished, are cells the workers have prepared for the queen to lay in. This is the best place to concentrate your efforts.

Also of course, move gently and don't over-smoke or you can knock or drive the queen down onto the floor.

The little discs you can buy to stick on the queen make her very easy to spot in my experience although they are a swine to fit. My preferred method is to put a blob of acrylic paint on the thorax in the correct year colour and then put the disk on the paint. It is fiddly and takes practice but the result really stands out - much more so than a blob of paint on its own.

 

[Adam]

i have been told that if i have an old queen that i have got rid off for some reason or another and keep her in the freezer.....and that evey time i cant find the queen if i place the dead frozen/thawed queen on the top of a frame and close the hive up for a minute that when i open the hive again the living queen will be beside the dead one......anybody use this method?

OK, who told you, do they do it themselves, and can they demonstrate it's success to you. Sounds like bo**ox to me. A) I reckon the pheremones in a queen would diminish pretty quickly. B) I think workers would crawl over it and C) a bee you have frozen, thawed, frozed thawed is pretty likely to disintegrate.

Adam

 

[oliver90owner]

Unlike Adam, who appears to be just a little too sceptic, I will try it next year, if I remember, just for the experience.

One minute, you say?

I think 1) a freshly frozen (maybe some while ago, though) may well retain queen pheromones.

2) yes the workers may crawl all over it, and

3) I would only be using a thawed-out queen once, then discard it. They are easily available during swarming time, so no need for that to be any impediment at all.

Anyone else going to try it? I don't need to resort to searching for the queen very often - sight of eggs and/or young larvae is perfectly adequate for most circumstances - but it's worth a shot, all the same.

If it is as certain as suggested, it would reduce the effort and time required, in a huge double brood colony of a really nasty bees which you wish/need to requeen.

Regards, RAB

 

[Otleybee]

I went on a visit to Braythorne Bees in Norh Yorkshire and the lady who keeps the bees there told us that she used this technique with much success.

 

[psafloyd]

OK, who told you, do they do it themselves, and can they demonstrate it's success to you. Sounds like bo**ox to me. A) I reckon the pheremones in a queen would diminish pretty quickly. B) I think workers would crawl over it and C) a bee you have frozen, thawed, frozed thawed is pretty likely to disintegrate.

Adam

And you might accidentally use it in your Christmas dinner...

 

[Hivemaker.]

I reckon the pheremones in a queen would diminish pretty quickly. B) I think workers would crawl over it and C) a bee you have frozen, thawed, frozed thawed is pretty likely to disintegrate.


Michael bush has a bit on his site about this,he keeps the queen bee's, including virgin queens in alcohol.....supposed to be helpful with making swarm lures.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Its a great idea if it works - The Return of the Undead Queen

 

[RoofTops]

Michael bush has a bit on his site about this,he keeps the queen bee's, including virgin queens in alcohol.....supposed to be helpful with making swarm lures.

Is the alcohol drunk? I've heard of sloe gin but...

 

[Mike a]

Once you get your eye in spotting the queen is easy even if you don't actively search for her and when the marker paint is wearing off.

The luminous coloured marker disc's are just unmissable.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Is the alcohol drunk? I've heard of sloe gin but...

Is tequila drunk.....it often has a little worm in it.

 

[RoofTops]

Tequila - I'd forgotton about that. Could start a trend - queen on a cocktail stick dunked in your drink.

And thanks for the piccy Mike A - even in this year's fashionable blue the discs were very easy to spot. I think it is the shine on them.

 

[Mike a]

I'm not a fan of marking or clipping for various reasons but the main reason is purely I don't need to as I'm not selling them on to some one else.

 

[roche]

Tequila - I'd forgotton about that. Could start a trend - queen on a cocktail stick dunked in your drink.

It should probably be mead....

 

[biglongdarren]

Adam the man who said this was amoung a panel of experts at a bee meeting i was at for a questions and answers nite....the guy seemed to know his stuff so untill i try it i'll take his word on it