Queen marking - do you worry about the colour?

[North End Bees]

The guys qualified what he uses, it is a varnish in a bottle like nail varnish, however, it's for marking bees and available from apiculture shops....not mine of course!

No problems with ordinary nail polish.
Do you have wife/daughters/female rellies willing to donate? (Assuming you're not a secret polish wearer )

 

[user 20297]

If I had some I'd use it! I'm balking at the cost of a paint pen that I may only make two dots with! I'm a skinflint!

You can use it for other things, especially the white. Mark a dot on your frames to denote the year you assembled them, for numbering hives, writing on blackboards or old slates to advertise honey prices and miscellaneous other permanent marking of bits and pieces.

I intend to have used all the paint in the pen before the end of the season and I don't expect to mark more than three queens.

 

[user 20297]

No problems with ordinary nail polish.
Do you have wife/daughters/female rellies willing to donate? (Assuming you're not a secret polish wearer )

It's hard to wear nail polish in secret, God knows I've tried after visits from my four year old, beautician granddaughter.

 

[pargyle]

If I had some I'd use it! I'm balking at the cost of a paint pen that I may only make two dots with! I'm a skinflint!

Assuming, of course, you can FIND the queen and grab her long enough to paint her ! I've come in from the hives on more than one occasion with more dots on the back of my glove than there was on the queens !

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

No problems with ordinary nail polish.
Do you have wife/daughters/female rellies willing to donate?

That's a bit sexist isn't it?
My late uncle Ossie wouldn't leave the house without his French polish (His name was Armand)

 

[Ed the Beek]

Has anyone tried luminous nail polish, I have often thought it might have some advantages.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Has anyone tried luminous nail polish, I have often thought it might have some advantages.

has anyone tried beekeeping at night?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Has anyone tried luminous nail polish, I have often thought it might have some advantages.

I use a fluorescent pink and i can usually spot the queen on a dark frame before I lift it..... but I’m sure any light colour would produce the same visual clue

 

[user 20297]

has anyone tried beekeeping at night?

..it may be possible....these are designed for drones.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drone-Flas...cphy=9046841&hvtargid=pla-1031375831266&psc=1

 

[Gilberdyke John]

has anyone tried beekeeping at night?

I'm visualizing little lighthouses or even signal flares around the apiary to aid night flying navigation.