Queen Pheromones

[will]

I tried to mark a queen the other day with crown of thorns, I had marked one then as going through another hive decided to mark that one as I fond her but I put the crown of thorns over the queen the bees balled all over the crown of thorns and my hand, gentle blow to remove them and they all came back straight away so gave up for another day, is it possible for the pheromones from the first queen was on the crown of thorns.
Will

 

[Hivemaker.]

Yes its the pheromones.

 

[drex]

I often find I get lots of workers running over the crown of thorns, when I have trapped the queen. Often so many it is then difficult to see her to mark her. I just assumed it was because the workers thought I was "attacking" HM, or she was emitting an alarm pheromone.

 

[Poly Hive]

Horrid thing.

One overly "gentle" push and you have a quartered queen...let alone the balling.

Got a rubbish bin? Use it....

Learn by picking up drones with an ungloved hand and marking them, and do kill them after clipping and marking else the situation gets very messy....

It's not just a matter of the bee in the hand: it's the marking kit and the scissors... and beware the leg........ queens raise a leg in defence and it is often cut off by the unaware hence the "wailey wailey, my queen is being balled/ supped cos of my clipping... uh huh....operator error anyone honest????

PH

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Horrid thing.

One overly "gentle" push and you have a quartered queen...let alone the balling.

Got a rubbish bin? Use it....

Learn by picking up drones with an ungloved hand and marking them, and do kill them after clipping and marking else the situation gets very messy....

It's not just a matter of the bee in the hand: it's the marking kit and the scissors... and beware the leg........ queens raise a leg in defence and it is often cut off by the unaware hence the "wailey wailey, my queen is being balled/ supped cos of my clipping... uh huh....operator error anyone honest????

PH

PH - it's time you had a holiday.

Seriously, time to go and lie down in a darkened room for a while.

Dusty

 

[Poly Hive]

Argue your case?

I am opening the chat...

PH

 

[Polyanwood]

I admit to cutting off a queen's leg. Embarrassingly I didn't put my glasses on. I was chatting some people through it and said, be very careful not to get her leg, then I did. Then I killed her on purpose, because without a back leg she would never be any good.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Then I killed her on purpose, because without a back leg she would never be any good.

I have a nice black queen with one hind leg,she is now in her fourth season and still going strong...thought they would of superceeded her by now,but they are obviously quite happy with her. If it had been a front leg i expect she would of been superceeded long ago.

 

[susbees]

PH - it's time you had a holiday.

Seriously, time to go and lie down in a darkened room for a while.

Dusty

Eh? Crown of thorns is a daft invention. Half way house is the tube marker system with the soft black mesh. Almost impossible to damage a queen (gloveless or nitriles) and easy to clip too (watching the leg scenario). Not dropping the plunger and having mesh correctly attached helps.

 

[drex]

In my third season and always used crown of thorns, and think it works well ( despite my above post).

However this weekend ( weather permitting) I wish to catch the queen from the hive from hell, in order to combine them with a friendlier colony. I do not want to dispatch her immediately as I have several Q? colonies and she is a good layer and her bees good foragers, so thought she would go in a nuc.

She is marked, but in order to do that, I donned my leather gloves rather than usual marigolds. If I do this I thought I would practice clipping ( never done it).

So how do I catch her?

 

[susbees]

However this weekend ( weather permitting) I wish to catch the queen from the hive from hell, in order to combine them with a friendlier colony. I do not want to dispatch her immediately as I have several Q? colonies and she is a good layer and her bees good foragers, so thought she would go in a nuc.

So you want to perpetuate her "hive from hell" status in another colony? I think I'm missing the point....

 

[drex]

Not really, just temporarily.

This hive is strong and I want to use the workers to boost a small really gentle colony.

I want to get rid of her genes ASAP. However I have a TBH which I started this year, using chop and crop, and I know this is queenless, and is struggling with few bees. I thought I would use her and some of her young workers to give this hive a bit of a boost, get it back on its feet, and when my total queen status becomes clear, despatch her ASAP. I do not want to give up on the TBH as it is a new venture for me, and I have not had any swarms ( as I understand that is the best way of starting a TBH).