When to mark the Queen

[Smith21]

At what age should you mark the Queen, I have been told not to mark her until she is at least 2 months old.

Cheers Kevin

 

[YorkshireBees]

Personal preference really but only after she is laying well!
Other than that for me it is a case of when I find her and have time during an inspection.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've marked only seven ......
Five marked a month or so after AS when laying.
One marked as a virgin......I was so sure I'd never find her again and didn't really think the possible consequences through......but all was OK.
Late queen overwintered in a nuc was marked just last week

 

[oliver90owner]

Age is not the only criterion.

Weather, number of colonies, experience, confidence, availability of replacements, time of the year. All could need to be taken into account by many.

 

[thedeaddiplomat]

I assume we are talking about the age of the Queen rather than the marker?

In my case, the answer would be: whenever you can find the blighter!

 

[Smith21]

Age is not the only criterion.

Weather, number of colonies, experience, confidence, availability of replacements, time of the year. All could need to be taken into account by many.

Weather: Sunny
Number of colonies: 3 plus 1 nuc
Experience: not a lot, this is my first year
Confidence: very
Replacement: none
Time of year: May

By my reckoning if I had answered all the above with a yes then it's time.

 

[protheroe]

At what age should you mark the Queen, I have been told not to mark her until she is at least 2 months old.

Cheers Kevin

i marked my queens at 2 weeks old last year but one got balled so i had to cage her,less chance of this if you mark her while she is still on frame,crown of thorns or freehand if she stays still long enough

 

[Erichalfbee]

freehand if she stays still long enough

Oh I wish I had the confidence to hold a queen gently between my fingers

 

[Gardenbees]

I would usually only mark a queen if I was planning on selling a nuc with her, and she was established as a laying queen of reasonable temperament. Then I'd mark and possibly also clip her. Otherwise, with just two "parent" hives, I'd just leave her. It's dicey enough raising a nice queen and getting her past the virgin flight, and with only a small number of hives I can usually recognise what's going on even if I can't always see her, so I don't feel the need to expose her to any more risk (i.e. my clumsiness!) than is necessary.

 

[hedgerow pete]

In my case, the answer would be: whenever you can find the blighter!

 

[Into the lions den]

When she is young............which basically means any time in the season of her birth, there are likely to be no problems arising which necessitate finding the queen. Thus we do a single round of queen marking, in spring, and all the unmarked ones we find get marked with the previous years colour.

By then they are closing in on being a year old and are far less 'flighty' and there is much less likelihood of doing damage in handling her. The colonies are also at their smallest size so in theory at least they are easiest to find. So our first round of 'in nest' work is the queen marking round, and once we have found them all, then the paint goes away back to store. We are now finished for then year, and all our spring marking was with white. This years young queens will not be marked till next spring.

 

[tonybloke]

Oh I wish I had the confidence to hold a queen gently between my fingers

just hold her still on the frame, then mark, no need to pick her up.

was told/informed last night of another possible problem that may occur when picking up an unclipped queen. the beekeeper can cause her to fly off, and she may then try to return to the hive she was in when first mated.

 

[Erichalfbee]

just hold her still on the frame, then mark, no need to pick her up.

.

Thanks tonybloke..... I will definitely try that,
Chasing her around with a cup and plunger usually ends up with me shouting at hubby to hold the frame still.
I like the idea of ITLDs method of doing one marking round in the spring.

 

[Heather]

Oh I wish I had the confidence to hold a queen gently between my fingers

Was doing this when a bee landed on top of her and stung her!!

Now I always use a plunger - then the queen is gently restrained, marked, then the ink is allowed to dry well before I reunite her - no problems encountered this way.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Was doing this when a bee landed on top of her and stung her!!

Blimey!!!
What odds would you get on that?

 

[Smith21]

We have found the queens in our two main hives but left the other one alone till she is older. I used a queen of thorns to mark both queens worked a treat it also let's the workers smell her all the time whilst she is trapped. Two puffs of smoke then let her go. All went well.

Thanks to all for the advice all taken on board.

Kevin.

 

[REDWOOD]

Thanks tonybloke..... I will definitely try that,
Chasing her around with a cup and plunger usually ends up with me shouting at hubby to hold the frame still.
I like the idea of ITLDs method of doing one marking round in the spring.

place the frame with the queen on flat on top of the hive, gently blow on the bees surrounding the queen do disperse them and coax the queen into the plunger, happy days

 

[chrismcd]

Not when she is irreplaceable!

There is a real temptation to mark queens in the early inspections when colonies are small and queens easy to find.

Just remember that, if you do damage her you are seriously up the creek!

I would suggest that you wait till the hive has plenty of eggs and there are mature drones around.

That way, the bees can cope with any mishap by raising an emergency queen who will be able to have a successful mating flight.

Me, I started to mark my queens last week and only do so if I can do it without any great drama.

 

[Smith21]

Loads of info to digest, thanks to all who posted.

Kevin

 

[Into the lions den]

There is a real temptation to mark queens in the early inspections when colonies are small and queens easy to find.

I hope from this remark that you did not get the impression we are inot our broodnests early enough to cause damage.

Hearing of people on here itching to get into the nest way back in March made me cringe. We started the queen marking in late April, and finished on Friday last week. It takes us about a week to do the lot, even allowing for weather breaks.......each team can do 120 to 160 a day.and there are three teams.

We never break into the nest until the weather is consistently warm enough for there to be no risk of brood chilling (bear in mind we work fast, no 20 min examinations here*) and for there to be no reforming of clusters at night. Go in too early and the queen loss risk is far too high. On the other hand if you leave it too late and you have numerous colonies wanting to start swarm preparations, lots of bees, and unmarked queens, then if your scedule is tight you just cannot cope.

So just be sensible, most beekeepers are keen to get into the bees before the bees themselves are in the right condition for that to be the case. Long winded way to say more or less the same as chrismcd.