Damaged a queen

Lesgold · August 27, 2024, 06:37:35 PM

Hi Folks,

While checking hives in the past couple of days, I decided to continue marking queens if they were found during the inspections. I?ve been doing this for a while now in preparation for the arrival of varroa. As I don?t handle queens all that often, my technique is poor and I?m quite clumsy. A few that I found were successfully marked but I ended up damaging one through a rough approach. I?ll check in a week or so to see the outcome of my actions but I?m not confident. How do you guys handle queens? I?d like to get away from using fingers if possible to reduce the risk of queen injury. A few months ago I purchased a queen cage which came with a queen catching devise. It looks promising and it will be given a run in the next couple of days. Would love to hear about techniques that you all use to catch queens. After losing a finger 18 months ago, some tasks are a little more challenging these days and catching queens is one of them.

Kathyp · August 27, 2024, 06:55:59 PM

Are you required to mark them? I never found it to be necessary in my own yard but then I never have had a huge number of hives and didn't sell queens. I just tried to keep track of laying patterns and do/allow replacements based on performance.

Terri Yaki · August 27, 2024, 06:57:39 PM

I have one of these and my mentor uses one of them as well. It might help if you have someone show you how to use it but there are probably youtube videos out there to guide you.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256055732431

Lesgold · August 27, 2024, 07:22:53 PM

Hi Kathy,

I?m not required to mark them but in my situation, hives don?t become broodless over the winter period. I plan on confining the queen at times to force a brood break. The other situation is that the regularity of alcohol washes will increase when varroa arrives. Having a marked queen seems like a way of saving time in the long run. Finding the queen is much quicker when she is marked. I have almost given a queen a swim in ethanol a couple of times in the past. Can?t afford this to happen during the winter.

I?ll have a look at that Terri. Anything that makes life easy suredoes help.

BeeMaster2 · August 27, 2024, 08:56:49 PM

Les,
I also use the same device. Mann Lake calls it a One Handed Queen Marker. They work real nice.
To handle the queens I teach new beekeepers to catch drones and practice marking them. You will have lots to work on and you will confuse your neighboring beekeeping when they find them in their hives. 😆
Jim Altmiller

Ben Framed · August 27, 2024, 09:03:22 PM

I started out using the queen catcher that you all are describing. It does work, but I finally got enough of monkeying around with it. One day, I had a line of nuc hives with newly hatched laying queens, which I intended to mark. The queen mark Cage was just a hindrance. I decided to go ahead and take the plunge. what I do is pick the queen up, let her grasp the side of my middle finger, then gently, use my first finger and thumb to hold her gently in place. This is simple and works very good for me.

Phillip

beesnweeds · August 27, 2024, 11:32:59 PM

I'm another that loves the one handed catcher. I'm too heavy handed and don't have enough feeling in my fingertips to grasp a queen without losing or squishing her. The first one to come out is made by a S. Korean company "Yasaeng", it's the best one. The yellow economy ones don't work as well. Spend the couple extra bucks and get the blue one made by Yasaeng. Mann Lake sells them.

Lesgold · August 28, 2024, 01:10:29 AM

Well Phillip, that?s the way I used to do it but without that middle finger, it?s a bit more difficult. LOL. Thanks for the tips about the queen catcher. I?ll get hold of one of those and give it a try.

Ben Framed · August 28, 2024, 01:20:35 AM

Quote from: Lesgold on August 28, 2024, 01:10:29 AM
Well Phillip, that?s the way I used to do it but without that middle finger, it?s a bit more difficult. LOL. Thanks for the tips about the queen catcher. I?ll get hold of one of those and give it a try.

Thats right Les! I forgot that you lost that finger a while back. Sorry.... You are not alone. Bruce of Bruce Bees lost a finger also while making bee equipment.

Phillip

NigelP · August 28, 2024, 06:37:01 AM

These are what I use Les, google "press in cage queen marking". Dead easy to use. You trap the queen underneath on the comb. This gives you plenty of time to get your pen (and scissors if clipping) ready. Gently press in further to trap queen firmly against comb and mark her. I often clip at same time, but tendency is to cut through the threads and cage needs rethreading, which isn't a lengthy job.

Ben Framed · August 28, 2024, 07:33:29 AM

I like that Nigel. That looks like a better way than >grabbing< her. How does it work out with the worker bees which might be within the circle? No problems I assume.

Thanks,
Phillip

NigelP · August 28, 2024, 12:41:21 PM

The pegs are spaced so the workers can get out, but workers will stay with queen but this not usually a problem. Sometimes you have to raise the cage a little to let queen wander into a more convenient place before pressing down and immobilizing her against the comb.

Lesgold · August 29, 2024, 05:21:44 PM

I?ve got a cheap plastic version of what you have shown but it is useless and doesn?t work very well at all. Nigel, what you have shown is an excellent design. It would be easy to pin the queen and mark her. Thanks for the photo. It would be a good project to make on a wet day.

Ben Framed · August 29, 2024, 10:02:42 PM

I would suppose the trick would be knowing the exact space between the pins so the thread would be rightly spaced to allow the workers to escape yet keep the queen confined . Or if it was a little snug I doubt it would matter whether the workers could escape for the purpose intended?

Lesgold · August 29, 2024, 10:34:30 PM

A few of the old technical drawing skills may come in handy here.

Ben Framed · August 29, 2024, 11:00:20 PM

A nice project indeed.

NigelP · August 30, 2024, 03:42:01 AM

Quote from: Ben Framed on August 29, 2024, 10:02:42 PM
I would suppose the trick would be knowing the exact space between the pins so the thread would be rightly spaced to allow the workers to escape yet keep the queen confined . Or if it was a little snug I doubt it would matter whether the workers could escape for the purpose intended?

The workers tend not to leave the queen despite the peg spacing. They usually don't get in the way, although sometimes you need to let her wander around to a more suitable position.
They are quite expensive to buy but I found these on amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B9GVKSGT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which are quite cheap. They have a metal grid which I remove and re-threaded with strong cotton. Be warned you need more than one

I'm forever dropping them losing them inside hives etc.
Agree Les, the plastic versions are next to useless

Lesgold · August 30, 2024, 04:06:58 AM

Thanks Nigel. You come up with some good ideas. Should be able to make one quite simply using the gear that I have in the workshop. Just need to get the brain into gear as to how could be done.

NigelP · August 30, 2024, 06:00:32 AM

If it helps. Thickness of wooden circle is 0.5cm, outer diam is 5cm, inner is 4.5. Total length of needles, includes bits in the wood is 1.5cm. Although I don't think that it needs to be made to those exact specifications, any approximation should do fine.
Oh, and 24 needles.

Terri Yaki · August 30, 2024, 06:05:05 AM

With that trap that I use, the workers climb out of it and leave the queen behind. Then I push the plunger up to get the queen positioned so she can be marked. The top of the plunger is medium density foam so the queen can't get squashed.