Seeing Red or Not

[beeno]

Of late I have found that the red paint of my queen marking Posca pen is very quickly cleaned off by the bees. Not had this problem with white or green. The thorax has been marked well, but there is only a hairline large circle left on closer inspection. I can accept that it happens on overwintered queens, but this year's queens seem to lose it after a week. Is there a reason for this as for example pigment differences?

 

[Bee Bumble]

Do not know the reason for your observation, but bees cannot see the colour red.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgur...hUKEwj025eKtr_cAhUJzqQKHQbmBz8Q9QEwAHoECAwQBg
I think they perceive it as a dark grey.

 

[sjt]

You can get a bright pink posca pen which is really easy to see, use this instead of red. One of my pink marked queens is in her third season and is still well marked.....yes I know it's not right for the year!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

bad paint - nothing more, The red posca pen I'm using this year works a dream with no sign of it coming off at all.

 

[Millet]

You can get a bright pink posca pen which is really easy to see, use this instead of red. One of my pink marked queens is in her third season and is still well marked.....yes I know it's not right for the year!

That matters not too me all my Queens are white apart from bought in Queens..

 

[enrico]

And me, white every year and the date of the latest queen written on the side of the brood box!
E

 

[Millet]

And me, white every year and the date of the latest queen written on the side of the brood box!
E

I only have six to worry about at the moment and i can remember what is in each colony so i do not write any notes down yet..if i get anymore colonies i may well start doing as you do.

 

[beeno]

bad paint - nothing more, The red posca pen I'm using this year works a dream with no sign of it coming off at all.

So, what exactly are you saying Jenkins? Bad batch or passed it sell by date? It could be 5 years old, plus however many years it was in store at the shops or new recipe?

 

[Beefriendly]

Treat your self to some new pens. This set of 12 from fleabay for £6 are essentially Posca pens but without the price tag.

 

[Helen]

I found the same, but I used paint in a small glass jar with brush - a bit like nailpaint. Disappeared over a week. Not just once, multiple times.

 

[Beefriendly]

Wrong type of paint if it is happening that often. Spend £5.99 on a set of 12 of those pens...it don't come off.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Do not know the reason for your observation, but bees cannot see the colour red.

The reason for the observation is the paint is wearing off, nothing to do with what colour bees can see.

 

[Angry_Mob]

I found that if I put the queen back in too quickly you could visibly see the paint had come off by the next inspection , I leave them out a little while longer to dry now.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

So, what exactly are you saying Jenkins? Bad batch or passed it sell by date? It could be 5 years old, plus however many years it was in store at the shops or new recipe?

some posca paints - regardless of age seem to wear off quickly leaving traces as you describe. White pens are notorious for it. The trick is, not to put too thick a dab on and keep her in the cage for a few seconds to allow the paint to dry

 

[beeno]

some posca paints - regardless of age seem to wear off quickly leaving traces as you describe. White pens are notorious for it. The trick is, not to put too thick a dab on and keep her in the cage for a few seconds to allow the paint to dry

OK, I try less is more then. Not a drying issue per se, but perhaps too thick. Not had this problem before on this scale. On the bright side, gives me more opportunities to handle queens!

 

[mike99]

That matters not too me all my Queens are white apart from bought in Queens..

As you did it Millet, my queen is marked white as agreed but I have put a pin with this years colour on one of the frames.

 

[jeff33]

This year I have decided not to mark my queens and not to stress about finding them on inspection unless I need to for various reasons. So long as I can see eggs and bias I'm satisfied.

 

[wessexmario]

Bees can see the colour red - it just looks the same as black to them. (the absence of a detected colour appears as black, this applies to any living thing with vision.) so other bees will be able to see the queen has a different colour on her, whichever colour it is - but I don't think that's really relevant.

More likely though are:
- unless you cleaned her, the queens thorax may have been contaminated with wax, honey, pollen, ... there's a lot of loose material continually falling down in a hive and paint won't stick unless it's to a secure clean surface. If just an edge doesn't stick, then the whole paint patch is liable to peel off as a single slab.
- the attendants might not have liked the smell/taste of the paint, they're frequently cleaning the queen, it's more likely the smell/taste than the colour as it's dark inside the hive. That's another reason for letting the paint dry properly, there will be less aromatics left after it's dry.

 

[Amari]

some posca paints - regardless of age seem to wear off quickly leaving traces as you describe. White pens are notorious for it. The trick is, not to put too thick a dab on and keep her in the cage for a few seconds to allow the paint to dry

Glad to see that I'm not the only one to use a cage. Never had the courage to pick her up for fear of squashing.

 

[Beefriendly]

Glad to see that I'm not the only one to use a cage. Never had the courage to pick her up for fear of squashing.

They are easy to pick up (use their wings) and much tougher than you think...try it with a few drones....you can tell if you squeeze the mature ones too hard .
I like a CofT as I can immobilise the queen and do the job easily. Perhaps if I was marking 1000's of queens each year I would use a different method.