Queen body identification

[jezd]

Maybe wrong place forum for this, as in the recording of queen details etc, I was gravitating towards a simple way of identifying the queen - regardless of pen marking etc.

Came up with :-

Y0B4
Y1B3
Y2B2
Y3B1
Y4B0

Y = Yellow, B = Black, number is strength of colour/band.

Y4B0 would all yellow
B3Y1 would be strong on the black bands

Can swap around to fit colour she ends tail away. eg 50/50 colouring but tail ends in stronger yellow, could be B2Y2.

The idea was to simplify things for me.

Anyone else do same? or gone a better way?

Jez

 

[Hivemaker.]

Yes, i clip the wing,do not mark,and can see what they are by looking at the workers. Whats your reason for wanting to do this out of interest?

 

[jezd]

Yes, i clip the wing,do not mark,and can see what they are by looking at the workers. Whats your reason for wanting to do this out of interest?

Record keeping at moment, I have 50+ queens out there and a variety of types and its easier to spot them if I have an idea what she looks like. ie jet black queen could take time to spot if needed. Also its of inertest with tracking queen/hive performance on all fronts not just honey production. I am not marking my queens at the moment either and don’t plan too unless I sell nucs at some point.

This was from a records point of view really, going back a while i used to record every little detail, then as things grow in scale I stopped recording anything - now after some time I am falling into the middle ground, in no small part due to a NBU inspection that helped focus on what is important to record (good day that was).

Just bouncing ideas.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Runs into a bit of a problem if you have say 150 carni queens and they all look exactly the same,like they usually do,or most other breeds,but you can tell they are carni's just by looking at the bee's at the entrance.All you need is a hive record card,notebook,to record the important points and performance of each hive,not really an exact description of the queen.

 

[BKF Admin]

I am waiting for PH to come along and say "KISS".

 

[Hivemaker.]

Aye......a brick works just fine.

 

[Poly Hive]

And so it does.

To be honest when there are more than a handful of hives to record the records can become a burden. When I started I kept grat detail, and where there were 20+ it shrunk rapidly, and when it got to 40+ it became this, as worked by a very successful beefarmer.

At the top was year of mating and colour. 2007 Yellow.

Then in chronological order, date say 3/3/09 3+1 OK

Three frames of brood and one added.

Then it goes on recording each ... but the wife needs the comp and I will continue anon.

PH

 

[BKF Admin]

Not a good start to marrage PH,you need to put your foot down.

 

[Hivemaker.]

You know it don't work like that Admin,put your foot down,you suffer...lol.

 

[Poly Hive]

Further I cannot see how it is possible to keep track of the queen in a hive over a year with out her being marked.

I have heard of a supercedure being found which must have been ongoing for 18 months, with TWO marked and clipped queens working.

Anyway yes, KISS and sprayed colour on bricks are a great help.

PH

 

[Hivemaker.]

Alternate which wing you clip. many hives have two queens now,i clip the new one's in spring,rarely is the old one there.

 

[Finman]

.
When hive has number, it is queens number too.

Clipped queen is last summer queen.

 

[douglasfarm]

Kiss

What is KISS?