Yesterday I tried to mark my one and only queen with the blue queen marking plunger and ended up painting most of her instead of just a dot.
I am really concerned that I may have harmed her. Any advice?
I'm afraid she is damaged goods now and will likely be killed. If she was laying prior to your attempt to mark her, the bees will make a new queen to replace her. Given your location, it's questionable that a replacement can be developed, mated and laying in time to save your hive, though, because cold weather will hit. You may be able to buy a new queen in time. Maybe some others will be able to better advise you, but those are my thoughts. I'd suggest you read everything on Michael Bush's website for more information on all the subjects covered here.
Since they breathe through their exoskeleton she may have smothered. Then again, the bees may have cleaned her up a bit. Look again today or tomorrow. If you see a member of the blue man group crawling around on a frame all is well :) They seem to take a lot of abuse from us fairly well. Next time you mark a queen dot a board some to get the pen acting right. It's not uncommon to try to mark a queen and end up with one that looks spray painted. Look at the bright side, if she survives she'll be real easy to find. It happens to all of us.
Thanks, GSF, for adding that. I guess there's always hope and I came off sounding like Gloomy Gus, I suppose.
>I am really concerned that I may have harmed her.
You have. It's hard to tell how much.
>Any advice?
Wait and see.
Thanks everyone for your responses. I'll check in the morning and post the results.
By the way Dallasbeek, I may live in Canada but the cold weather is several months away:)
I tried one of the paint pens a few years back and painted half the queen's head when the paint gushed out. I thought the bees would supersede the queen, but when I checked 3 days later I found they had cleaned the paint from her head. Perhaps all is not lost, you may get lucky.
Just finished checking the hive and no sight of a blue queen. I am pretty sure I saw a queen but she had no paint on her??
When you next inspect look for eggs, if you find eggs your queen is still there and is laying. Bees, it seems, can remove paint from their bodies without damage. This is why clipping a wing is a better mark than painting a dot. Clipping is permanent.
Seabee,
Go catch a few drones and practice until you get it right. Then when you need to mark your queen you will have the confidence to do it. A couple of years ago I had funny looking marked queens (drones) in my apiary. I suspect right now that you probably don't plan on doing any queen markings for a while. I suggest you look into a queen marking holder. I have the one from Mann Lake that has a plunger and a blue flip close cover. It works real for holding the queen still and getting her in and out of it safely.
Jim
Here is a link for the One Handed Queen Catcher. It works real well.
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/beekeeping-supplies/product/HD-101.html
Jim, I have one of those - nothing works well when it comes to catching a queen (lol) I take the frame she's on and lay it on the side. I gently put the catcher's opening over her and close it up being careful not to chop her feet and legs off. I then mark her. Be very careful when opening it up to release her if a lot of bees are on it. The very first one I did I looked real good because of the pile of bees and I saw she had got her upper half stuck sticking through the slots. I could have cut her in to.
Seabee8: Was she still wet when you put her back in there? If so then no doubt she got cleaned up as soon as she got home. If that's so - ain't it great to make a mistake and get away with it? You 'pose to let her dry before returning her. She'll see that blue pen coming next time and skee daddle.
I'm thinking if she was dead you'd probably seen her on the ground in front of the hive.
Seabee,
When you paint your queen, bee sure to make sure the paint is dry before you put her back in the hive. If you use the One Handed Queen Catcher, release the plunger pressure and leave her in it. Let the paint dry enough that the smell does not cause the bees to kill the queen.
Jim
I wouldn't write her off just yet - the bees may have cleaned all or some of the paint off. Depends on what you used.
I tried a Posca pen this year for the first time - it's taken me 3 applications on a test queen to get the paint to 'stick' - the girls just keep chewing it off ! Think I'll go back to using Humbrol enamel, even though it does take much longer to dry.
LJ
I am happy to say my queen is alive and well. She was completely cleaned. I picked her up by the wings and dabbed her with the pen on the back of her thorax and put her into the queen catcher to allow the paint to dry and then put her back into the hive. I will wait a couple of days and check on her again.
Good for you. Congratulations.
Great news!
Glad to here it.
Did you practice on your drones?
Jim
If you haven't marked a thousand drones you are not yet ready to mark a queen.
MB's little blue dot drone army ;-)
I didn't practice on a drone. I found a video on YouTube, and followed the example in the video. Picked her up by her wings, she grabbed onto my finger and I used my free hand to mark her.
There are a lot of little nuances that aren't explained in the videos or the books. Like if you have a paint pen you should blot it first on something... or just how hard can you squeeze a queen without hurting her, or how fast is she. It's the little details that make things work or not. Get next year's color. Mark a thousand drones. Then do a few workers for good measure (harder and more likely to get stung). Then use this year's color on the queen. By now you are confident and all those details like how fast to move or how hard to squeeze or blotting the paint etc. are second nature.
:oops: