Queen marking

[Levitt53]

Hi, I need to get a 2016 queen marked this year and have just read that this is best done early in the season as she's easier to see with less bees around (sounds obvious now). My question is do you think this is something a new beekeeper should do or should I get someone with more experience to help. I know the theory and it looks simple enough but is it trickier than it looks. I'm just trying to plan what I need to get this year. Thanks

 

[masterBK]

Not diffciult but still suggest you practise on drones until you have got the technique right. I also suggest you don't mark a queen until flying drones are available just in case you mess it up and kill the queen by clumsy handling or the bees ball her (unlikely but does happen). If this happens a replacement queen from an emergency cell can get mated.

 

[REDWOOD]

Not diffciult but still suggest you practise on drones until you have got the technique right. I also suggest you don't mark a queen until flying drones are available just in case you mess it up and kill the queen by clumsy handling or the bees ball her (unlikely but does happen). If this happens a replacement queen from an emergency cell can get mated.

 

[Levitt53]

Great advice thanks. I'll get the stuff ready but practice as you suggest.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hi, I need to get a 2016 queen marked this year and have just read that this is best done early in the season as she's easier to see with less bees around (sounds obvious now). My question is do you think this is something a new beekeeper should do or should I get someone with more experience to help. I know the theory and it looks simple enough but is it trickier than it looks. I'm just trying to plan what I need to get this year. Thanks

I use a queen marking pen (use the right year code colour) and crown of thorns. Get the pen started by vigorous shaking then dabbing on a piece of paper etc. It will probably flood (which you don't want on your queen) so use it several times on the paper to practice and get the tip wetness right then it's straightforward to dab her on the back, ease off the cot but let her dry before removing it.. Unmarked queens aren't the end of the world but they do make for easier spotting and you know if supercedure happens.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don't mark the drones with the same colour

 

[B+.]

Don't mark the drones with the same colour

Better yet: practice with raisins (or something similar). That way, you get the feel of dealing with something soft but without them being in the hive afterwards.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Or.....you could eat........maybe not

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I dab the (posca) pen nib on the back of my hand to be sure that it's giving the correct amount of paint before dabbing it on the thorax of the queen. I once had a queen referred to as Queen BA. Sounds like I had a cunning plan for queen naming - but it was simply because she had a Blue Antenna as I had a problem with the pen. On a hot day the contents of the pen expands and a press on the end makes too much come out.

 

[For want of a better word]

Mike Palmer marks his queens with colored enamel paint and used a grass stalk to apply
...I have been considering the need to mark queens... certainly absolutely no advantage to the bees.
Bigger issue would be the need to clip to prevent swarming ( it don't !)

Inspections should be to get a feel of the general condition and health of the colony and check for swarm cells... not to satisfy the curiosity of the beekeeper!

I think that the plethora of the cut and paste beekeeping books aimed at beginners and seasoned beekeepers alike, are to blame for this obsession with " Inspections" and "finding the queen"

Sorry to be a bit of a "Tractor Man"... but let's THINK about this......

Yeghes da

 

[mintmoth]

Hi, I need to get a 2016 queen marked this year and have just read that this is best done early in the season as she's easier to see with less bees around (sounds obvious now). My question is do you think this is something a new beekeeper should do or should I get someone with more experience to help. I know the theory and it looks simple enough but is it trickier than it looks. I'm just trying to plan what I need to get this year. Thanks

As another newbie beekeeper who marked Q's last year for the first time, my three penn'orth is, when you look for the queen, have your CofT or Q catcher in your hand, because for sure, if you find the queen, then reach for the CofT, by the time you've picked it up, the queen will have disappeared again.

 

[george]

Queen marking .

All good advice above .
If you practice on drones I would be ruthless and squish them once you have applied the paint .
If you are not wing clipping at the same time would you consider trying one of the ' push in ' type queen cages ? Gently press it in and hold her down, then once the blob of paint is on , you can give it a minute to two to dry . No handling of queens required .

 

[domino]

Great advice thanks. I'll get the stuff ready but practice as you suggest.

Don't do what I did and mark all the drones with the current years colour. I ironically makes it harder to spot the queen you marked.

 

[For want of a better word]

All good advice above .
If you practice on drones I would be ruthless and squish them once you have applied the paint .
If you are not wing clipping at the same time would you consider trying one of the ' push in ' type queen cages ? Gently press it in and hold her down, then once the blob of paint is on , you can give it a minute to two to dry . No handling of queens required .

A salutatory tale.... Lady beekeeper friend managed to IMPALE not one but three queens last year with the spikey push in catchers and then go on to crush another two in one of the new fangled queen catcher gadgets!

And at a time when no early season queens were available ( and thankfully she did not want to go against the BBKA advice and import some foreign stripey jobs!)
I asked her... if she was so good at spotting queens... why was she marking them??

Yeghes da

 

[domino]

A salutatory tale.... Lady beekeeper friend managed to IMPALE not one but three queens last year with the spikey push in catchers and then go on to crush another two in one of the new fangled queen catcher gadgets!

And at a time when no early season queens were available ( and thankfully she did not want to go against the BBKA advice and import some foreign stripey jobs!)
I asked her... if she was so good at spotting queens... why was she marking them??

Yeghes da

I learned to pick queens up last season, it changed the way I keep bees for the good.

That said I did see a queen I was holding (badly) fly off last year

 

[For want of a better word]

I learned to pick queens up last season, it changed the way I keep bees for the good.

That said I did see a queen I was hold fly off last year

I ( hope) and expect she flew back home!

Remember the debate about marking virgins... and making them an easy target for joe crow to eat when on the wing in search of a drone?

Unless part of a definitive queen rearing program for bee improvement I can not see any point in marking queens!

Yeghes da

 

[masterBK]

Marked queens can be found more easily and so saves time doing swarm control, bailey, making up nuclei etc. Finding and replacing an unmarked queen in an aggressive colony is one of the most unpleasant jobs in beekeeping.
Less likely to crush a marked queen when manipulating combs or flung off combs when turning the comb.
A beekeeper instantly knows the queen’s age if the colour code is used.
The presence of an unexpected unmarked queen indicates she has been replaced eg by supersedure.
It can be used to identify a particular queen and is a means of monitoring genetic lines or the origin of a particular swarm.

 

[B+.]

Unless part of a definitive queen rearing program for bee improvement I can not see any point in marking queens!

How would you know if your queen had't just been superceded if she wasn't marked? You could replace a queen that they had just reared/mated because you thought she was old and past it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Remember the debate about marking virgins... and making them an easy target for joe crow to eat when on the wing in search of a drone?


Yeghes da

I should imagine a virgin is eaten by happenstance. An insect eating bird would find a drone congregation quite visible....dots or not.

 

[B+.]

I should imagine a virgin is eaten by happenstance. An insect eating bird would find a drone congregation quite visible....dots or not.

Its a complete myth. All my queens emerge in an incubator (http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/album.php?albumid=751&pictureid=3727) and are marked with numbered plastic disks (https://youtu.be/qOFyf93q9gk?t=1m30s) before they are put into nucs. I need to have complete control over the breeding cycle for my selection work and this is the only way I can be sure that the queen I have in a hive is actually the queen I think it is.