I just recently got myself one of those "hair-clip" queen catchers. I now consider it a must-have and load it into my shirt pocket whenever I am getting ready to work my bees. It is a very helpful tool for queen management. A few weeks ago I even used mine to catch a virgin queen -- I left her in the cage and set it on the entrance where it was quickly covered in a thick layer of workers. Once I had finished and was closing up the hive I took the cage in hand and brushed some of the workers off the cage so I could see the queen prior to releasing her into the top of the hive. There she was, then as I moved the cage down near the tops of the frames, she simply slipped out of the cage and made her own way down into the hive, even before I had begun to open it for her. I guess that makes her a temporarily willing captive. Her own workers were probably helpful in keeping her in the catcher cage while I worked the hive.
""hair-clip" queen catchers"
Never heard of it...Where can I see a picture of one? And what is the cost to obtain one....
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/search_results.asp?txtsearchParamTxt=queen+catcher&txtsearchParamCat=ALL&btnSearch.x=0&btnSearch.y=0&txtsearchParamType=ALL&iLevel=1&txtsearchParamMan=ALL&txtsearchParamVen=ALL&txtFromSearch=fromSearch
http://brushymountainbeefarm.com/products.asp?pcode=341
I have about ten of them. One in a pcket of every bee jacket and bee suit and one in each toolbox and a few laying around in case. :)
Thanks Joseph.
Did you see the price differences between Brushy Mountain Bee and Mann Lake? $5/ea and $9/ea respectively! Wow, it pays to shop for Beekeeping supplys...
Mine is a metal one I got at my local bee supply store, Southwest Bee
Supply, I haven't seen metal ones anywhere else. I suppose the plastic ones
are okay, but if I forgot it outside and the sun hits it, then I could expect its
viable life to be drastically reduced.
Next time I get over that way I'm gonna pick up some more. They sure are
handy.
They are a handy thing to have if you are planning on raising a few queens.
Mine is plastic, but I would be lost without it. Virgin queens tend to get loose if they are in there too long.
I've had some virgins queens run right through them. I've also had one or two of the small cell queens get through, but only after they were in them a while.