balling newly marked queen

[charlotte]

Ok- so yesterday I inspected one of my hives...had a superceded queen in there & wanted to get her marked.  Found her, marked her with white nail polish(yes I know, not the proper color, but that's what I used), put her back. All seemed well until about three seconds later they started to ball her!

I have never seen this happen and have used this nail polish to mark other queens.  She was just moving around with this ball of probably 10 bees on her, just going along, looking for a place to lay. I took my finger & broke up the ball alittle, and they just got right back on her.  Needless to say I was freaked out! Tried to smoke them alittle & it just was making them mad.

After a few minutes of this I just put them back together & figure maybe they didn't like the smell? and will supercede her?  Which sucks because she was laying really well.  Or were they just trying to clean her & remove the mark??

I don't want to get in a big discussion of "to mark or not to mark" your queens.  Just wondering if anyone has ever seen this or had it happen.  I really would like to check in on them & see what's up, but it's overcast & drizzly here today.  Guess I'll have to wait & see. In hindsight, I wonder if I should have caged her & hung her in the hive like she was a new queen. Will they sometimes ball a queen & not actually kill her???  I am totally lost on this one.  I searched some old posts & didn't really come up with much....again- let's not get in a debate about marking or not. I know it's a sensitive topic...any & all thoughts on the matter are greatly appreciated!

[WayneW]

Not a seasoned professional, but i'd suspect they were cleaning her, not trying to kill her. Nail polist wont dry as fast as marking pens will, so you maybe should have left her out of the hive for an hour or more. I know my wife's nail polish stikns for hours lol.
JMO

[Tucker1]

Charlotte: I think WayneW has made a good point. Perhaps the odor from the nail polish was still present. The odor of the nail polish may have confused the workers and they were just trying to remove the smell from their queen. Hopefully, their all settled down by now and everything is back to normal.

[charlotte]

Thanks guys. I feel alittle better now.  Wish it was decent out so I could just check it out!  I think in the future I may take her out & let her "air out" for awhile. Weird that it's never happened before. I'll give an update when I get in there next and know what happened.

[Natalie]

I think the smell is the problem, it is a strong smell and foreign to them but I also wonder if it can interfere with her pheremones being distributed to the colony.
Maybe it was confusing them? Just throwing that out there, it could have no actual basis but just a thought.

[tlynn]

I'll jump in since I am thinking of marking my queens - what is the best marker to use?  It sounds like something non-toxic/latex would be best but would that just get chewed off?

[WOB419]

Charlotte,

When you go in the hive again, why don't you grab a worker bee and mark her, then put her back in the hive and see if she gets the same treatment?  You can experiment with multiple bees and see how the reaction differs based on letting the marking dry-out for different lengths of time.  Maybe you should try this any time you change the nail polish that you use, before you put it on your queen.

By the way, did you paint her toe nails too or just her finger nails?  I can't get my queens to sit still long enough to get through all of their toes.

[charlotte]

Checked in on them today...her majesty is alive & well. Everything seemed normal. No queen cups being made, so I think I am in the clear.  Next time I guess I will take her out for awhile & make sure she is good & dry.  ( I had used this same exact bottle of nail polish to mark in the past ) So, I am not sure why this hive balled her, protection or just didn't like the smell.  Anyway thanks for the help everyone! :)

[RayMarler]

Or were they just trying to clean her & remove the mark??

Yep, they just trying to remove the mark, they don't care for freshly tattoo'd queens!
When they actually ball a queen, it's a ball of tightly packed bees the size of a ping pong ball or a golf ball. Ten bees were just trying to clean off the mark. Every time I mark a queen the queens court tries to remove the mark, and I'm using water based marking pens. I think your fingernail polish should be just fine.

[Robo]

Ya, they where just trying to clean her.   I usually put her in a hair roller cage for 5-10 minutes and let her dry before returning her to the hive.  I would guess that nail polish probably takes longer to dry that the Posco pens.

[Bee Happy]

I'll jump in since I am thinking of marking my queens - what is the best marker to use?  It sounds like something non-toxic/latex would be best but would that just get chewed off?

Robo has a post someplace on how to mark a queen and what to use. - I don't have the link handy but if you check his profile you might be able to find the thread where he posted it.

[Robo]

I use either

POSCA medium tip  - non-toxic water based
Best price with great service -> http://www.durablesupply.com/pospainmar.html


or

non-toxic glue numbers
http://www.betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=629

[chad]

do you use the PC-5M marker ? Is this year green or light green?Also what color seems to be the brightest(easiest to find)?I'm not the best at finding my queens,so I need all the help I can get.Thanks - Chad

[Robo]

Yes, the POSCA mediums is what I use.   This years color is green (they don't specify a shade).   Personally, since I have dark queens, I actually find white is the easiest to spot.

[Bee Happy]

any reason not to use dayglow versions of the appropriate colors?