Queen marking

[Goran]

Marking is very important to me also. Less to find a queen, more to know what is happening in the hive ( emergency/supercedure queen, queen age).
Last season I had situation that I found marked queen in honey boxes ( I thought qe was faulty). When I got to brood box I found original queen. The queen in upper box came with swarm I presume and move in.. Interesting for me. If I haven't marked I wouldn't know what happen. I would presume that some emergency queen appeared in honey box if not marked.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I would presume that some emergency queen appeared in honey box if not marked.

If the old queen had been clipped (that is marked in a way I suppose) you would also know if there was a new or different queen in the hive.

 

[Goran]

If the old queen had been clipped you would also know if there was a new or different queen in the hive.

Over here we don't clip queens. I think even not allowed officially. Colour is enough for me. With clipping here I would believe beeks even will be more lazy..

 

[Hivemaker.]

With clipping here I would believe beeks even will be more lazy..

With clipped queens there are still lots of people that are under the illusion that it stops swarming, it doesn't... it just buys you a few extra days, which can be helpful if running a lot of colonies, but you certainly cannot afford to be lazy.

 

[For want of a better word]

Great a balanced argument with the outcome to clip and to mark queens.

If there are any new beeks near to me who would like to come and practice clipping and marking last years batch of queens... we have 50 + that need doing! ( All the others are clipped and marked of course!!
( and a demonstration of the butterfly catcher and plastick bag method!)

Yeghes da

 

[domino]

With clipped queens there are still lots of people that are under the illusion that it stops swarming, it doesn't... it just buys you a few extra days, which can be helpful if running a lot of colonies, but you certainly cannot afford to be lazy.

Since I started clipping queens I found the whole process of beekeeping slightly more relaxing - it's the safety net I think.

 

[REDWOOD]

Don't forget, Will You Raise Good Bees,
white 1 - 6
Yellow 2 - 7
Red 3 - 8
Green 4 - 9
Blue 5 - 0

 

[B+.]

Over here we don't clip queens. I think even not allowed officially. Colour is enough for me. With clipping here I would believe beeks even will be more lazy..

What do you do with Instrumentally inseminated queens?

 

[Karsal]

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

The best suggestion I can make without you holding the queen is to get a wooden press in queen cage. The best £6.00 you will spend. Do not waste your money on the cheap plastic ones off Fleabay like I did originally. They are useless!
Locate your queen and gently press it over her on the comb and stop her moving without squashing her. Then touch her with a dab paint from a uni posca marker.
I tell all the new beekeepers in our association that this is a worthwhile investment.

 

[Beefriendly]

Don't forget, Will You Raise Good Bees,
white 1 - 6
Yellow 2 - 7
Red 3 - 8
Green 4 - 9
Blue 5 - 0

Useless information when you are red green colour blind!!
White, yellow and Blue are all I use and that is only to differentiate queens from the three different strains of bees I'm currently housing. My notes tell me the years they where born.

 

[REDWOOD]

Useless information when you are red green colour blind!!
White, yellow and Blue are all I use and that is only to differentiate queens from the three different strains of bees I'm currently housing. My notes tell me the years they where born.

To be honest my head tells me what year my queen are and very seldom do I mark queens . It must be a hell of a thing being colour blind, you do what works for you.

 

[Beefriendly]

It must be a hell of a thing being colour blind.

Not really, it's very misunderstood. Being red/green colour blind doesn't mean you can't see red and green, your eyes just miss seeing some of the intermediate shades. If you take a colour chart that shows all the shades of colour combinations between red, green and brown I see some of those shades as grey, whereas you would see a lot of subtle different reddy greens/browns intermediate colours. It means that using red and green as colours for queen marking is difficult as they don't stand out against the brownish thoraxes of bees.
The equivalent for you would be trying to spot your white marked queen when all the other bees are are on the balsam Not impossible but more difficult.
But we are getting a bit off topic here.....so lets get back on...

 

[dano41]

Do people who inseminate queens always clip them?

 

[Goran]

What do you do with Instrumentally inseminated queens?

To be honest, if here is done I am not familiar with it.. If done it has to be on institutes.
I just know that some breeding program started on one island, but not familiar with its existence or results ( if there were any).

 

[Poly Hive]

Personally I have never used the "official" marking colours as yellow for instance when I worked a lot of OSR was useless. I found white pretty poor too. So I tended to rotate red blue and green which worked for my eyes.

Just be aware that the COT if pushed hard into soft comb can and has neatly decapitated queens.

Being right handed I catch with my left and mark and clip with my right.

PH

 

[Hivemaker.]

Do people who inseminate queens always clip them?

I always do, yes... (I guess this is why you ask if they should be?) as I seem to remember you saying you bought an inseminated Carni queen last summer, which was not clipped, but even more strange (if I remember correctly) you said about misplacing the pedigree and sending for another, you then found the original, and the two pedigrees and descriptions were completely different for the same queen.

 

[B+.]

Do people who inseminate queens always clip them?

Not always. I received 2 unclipped Instrumentally inseminated queens from the Netherlands last summer.
Inseminated queens sometimes don't realise that they have been inseminated and still try to fly for the first couple of days... At least until they start laying eggs. After that, they behave exactly like naturally mated queens. A queen excluder over the entrance can serve the same purpose. It's not a problem so long as you know she isn't clipped.

 

[dano41]

Just wondered was there anyone who wouldn't?Its true I was sent a inseminated queen which wasn't clipped shipped in an ordinary envelope.I was unable to access my private messages for some reason one time and wanted a reminder of the pedigree so I asked for it again.When access to my old messages returned both pedigrees were completely different.This person always preaches on here about how scrupulous we should be about record keeping.Money by the way did not change hands it was a barter for insemination tool parts.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Just wondered was there anyone who wouldn't?Its true I was sent a inseminated queen which wasn't clipped shipped in an ordinary envelope.I was unable to access my private messages for some reason one time and wanted a reminder of the pedigree so I asked for it again.When access to my old messages returned both pedigrees were completely different.This person always preaches on here about how scrupulous we should be about record keeping.Money by the way did not change hands it was a barter for insemination tool parts.

If sending in an envelope, I always use the padded ones with small holes punched in them for ventilation.

This person always preaches on here about how scrupulous we should be about record keeping.

Sounds like a bit of a dodgy character doing things like this, a bullshitter.