One Hand Catcher and POSCA Pens

At this years Auction I picked up a "One Hand Catcher," a device for catching and marking a Queen Bee. There's a few ways to mark Queens, my usual way is to catch her in a Queen Clip then transfer her to a Marking Cage which has a foam plunger.

Queen Clip and Marking Cage with Plunger

 There's a chance you could loose the Queen whilst transferring her from the clip to the cage. It's a small chance but it's there, and it's happened to me. One way round it is obviously to do the transfer from clip to plunger with your hands in a transparent plastic bag. There's also a different kind of marking cage which has spikes that you press into the comb trapping the queen for marking without removing her from the comb at all. People do it but I can imagine an occassional Queen of two getting accidentally impaled so it's not a method I've tried.

'One Hand Catcher'

The One Hand Catcher integrates the Clip and Marking Cage cutting out the transfer and in theory being operated with just one hand. The device is from Korean company Yasaeng Beekeeping Supplies and their English language catalogue is worth a look, they make some interesting Queen Rearing and bulk feeding kit although it's all Langstroth sized. I'd made up a Nucleus earlier from a hive in the garden which had made themselves a Queen and graduated to a full sized hive but I'd not yet marked the Queen. I was able to find her surprisingly easily as she was, in relative terms, huge. Her back end was also very light coloured making her stand out too. Some queens are seriously difficult to locate being not much bigger than a worker and just as dark.

One Big Fat Queen

Once you find your Queen you open the cage top by sliding a slotted panel down with your thumb to open the cage, place it over the queen on the comb then slide the panel closed again trapping the Queen. It's quite bulky compared to a Clip so it's going to take some getting used to but I was able to do it a few times. Practice by catching individual drones rather than winding your Queen up though.

Got her

The slots are wide enough to let workers out but not the Queen. Once captured you push the sponge plunger up trapping her against the plastic slots whilst you mark her. In some of the photos you can see there's an odd round section in the side of the device. There's one on each side and they're actually built in magnifying lenses so you can inspect your Queen up close and very personal.

Marked!

Once marked you lower the plunger again letting her wander about a a bit as the paint dries. Maybe take some photos and upload them to Instagram or something.

Big girl.

 Previously I've always used waterbased paint and a paint brush to mark queens, this means getting paint onto the brush marking her then cleaning up the brush later and any spilled paint. At the Auction I got a POSCA paint pen which a lot of beekeepers rate. They're an art product really but a lot of beekeeping suppliers sell them as they're so popular. It's far better than faffinf with paint and brushes.

Whilst Queen bees are meant to be marked a specific colour for each year I've decided to abandon the colour scheme and go my own way. This year's colour is white which doesn't really stand out in the hive at all against, another year uses yellow which again doesn't stand out against the comb and bees. I do have to wonder who chose these colours. I've decided to just use two colours and alternate them one year to the next. Last years Queens are marked blue and being the only blue thing in the hive are fairly eay to spot, for this years Queens I've gone for a metallic pink. There isn't much usually much metallic pink in a bee colony so this is another easy to spot one. I'm probably just going to alternate between two colours year by year and let the bees handle supersedure themselves. Keeping it simple.