How-To: Queen Marking

Sep 4th, 2007 by Robo

There are good reasons to have your queens marked, including:

Ease in locating the queen during inspections.
Confirm the hive hasn’t swarmed.
Confirm the queen hasn’t been superseded. This can be very important in areas that have Africanized honeybees.

Unfortunately, many folks don’t have marked queens. Whether it not being an option when the purchased their queens, not wanting to pay the extra money to have it done, or they have raised their own queens.

For those that realize the benefit of having marked queens and would like to mark their queens, I have included a short demonstration video below.

Posted in Beekeeping, How-To | 46 Comments

46 Responses to “How-To: Queen Marking”

on 05 Sep 2007 at 7:32 am1Matt

Thanks Robo. You make that look easy.

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Robo Reply:
September 5th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
It is relatively easy once you over come the anxiety of picking up the queen. What is nice about this method is you don’t have to worry about squeezing too hard like when you hold her by the body. Try it on a few drones first, you’ll get comfortable with it quickly.

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on 18 Oct 2007 at 5:42 pm2Scott

Robo -

She won’t sting you when you do this? I’ve only read queens save stinging for killing other queens mostly.

Regards,

Scott

Reply
Robo Reply:
October 18th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Scott,

I’ve never been stung by a queen nor know anyone who has. I have heard the same about queens stinging queens, but have never witnessed that either

Rob..

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on 02 Feb 2008 at 1:36 am3Vladimir

Hi Robo.
Thanks for providing this great video aid in marking queens. I have always been a bit nervous but am now a bit more assured. Will you provide some more management videos in the near future?:-)
Thanks again,
Vladimir (from Georgia)

Reply
Robo Reply:
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Vladimir,
Glad you found the video useful and hopefully it gave you the confidence to try it yourself. I’m hoping to do some more videos on the use of the Cloake board for queen rearing. I’m open for suggestions if there is anything else you’d like to see.
Rob…

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on 21 Jan 2009 at 1:44 pm4yunk9

[..YouTube..] Very nice video thanks.

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on 18 Feb 2009 at 6:56 pm5comb

thank for the video cloake board would be appreciated also . do you sell queens?

Reply
Robo Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Hi comb,

A Cloake Board video is on my todo list, just seems like I have a million things going on during the summer. Hopefully this year
Yes I sell queens, my stock is all untreated ferals.

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on 04 Mar 2009 at 11:16 pm6hardleecure

[..YouTube..] hmmm… why would you want to mark the queen?What do you do with the hives in the winter?Is it difficult to run an apiary?

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on 05 Mar 2009 at 12:05 am7bushkillfarms

[..YouTube..] 1. So you can easily find her2. So you can assure she wasn’t superceded, died, or swarmed.The hives are left alone for the winter. The bees cluster and eat honey to stay warm.Difficulty is all relative

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on 05 Mar 2009 at 12:14 am8hardleecure

[..YouTube..] how would you stop other bee-like bugs from killing the swarm… like hornets, or yellow jackets?

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on 08 Mar 2009 at 1:58 am9wtiwti

[..YouTube..] WOW.

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on 29 Mar 2009 at 7:15 pm10asleitch

[..YouTube..] Queens don’t always “drop dead” they sometimes feign death. If you leave them in a queen cage on top of the colony for about 5 minutes – they can be found running around again.

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on 29 Mar 2009 at 11:38 pm11carmex787

[..YouTube..] why didnt it sting you?

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on 20 Apr 2009 at 12:28 am12paraplanebelle

[..YouTube..] great vid. thx for sharing.

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on 10 May 2009 at 8:55 pm13MattSaucee24

[..YouTube..] i herd if you kill the queen bee….a colony of bees will start to attack you

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on 11 May 2009 at 1:09 am14bushkillfarms

[..YouTube..] NOT! It is common practice to kill the queen before introducing a new, younger replacement.

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on 11 May 2009 at 1:12 am15bushkillfarms

[..YouTube..] I’ve been involved in beekeeping since a child. NY

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on 11 May 2009 at 2:26 pm16MattSaucee24

[..YouTube..] what if there’s no queen bee to lead a swarm of bees…………….cuz my grandpa has thoughs frames for bees can make there hunny and when he takes out the queen be from there…..they get all crazy

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on 21 May 2009 at 11:58 pm17Tickets825

[..YouTube..] Nice example

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on 23 May 2009 at 5:30 pm18TruthVeracity

[..YouTube..] nice job again Rob!Paul

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on 24 May 2009 at 6:11 pm19nousernameideasleft

[..YouTube..] You’re left-handed! Yaaaaaay! Anyway, nice video.

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on 02 Jul 2009 at 6:30 pm20PHesmondhalgh

[..YouTube..] Great video… we just marked our queen… I think it’s fair to say it didn’t go quite this smoothly… but she seems to be marked, and alive!

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on 12 Jul 2009 at 8:34 pm21Shydragon72

[..YouTube..] why wasn’t it trying to sting you?

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on 15 Jul 2009 at 1:42 pm22spiritwolf69uk

[..YouTube..] Yea right you got Balls mate. I just started Beekeeping and will be keeping my gloves on for now

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on 01 Aug 2009 at 1:57 am23nousernameideasleft

[..YouTube..] You’re left handed! Awesome! But seriously, thanks for the video.

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on 01 Aug 2009 at 2:56 am24bushkillfarms

[..YouTube..] It’s totally awesome!

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on 14 Aug 2009 at 11:44 pm25molinobeer

[..YouTube..] This is for what pourpose? I will need to find her again?

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on 06 Sep 2009 at 7:27 pm26tennesseeredhead

[..YouTube..] y dont u put gloves on lol

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on 14 Oct 2009 at 6:57 pm27fj40dude

[..YouTube..] been beekeeping for 13 years and always open to new ideas. great job! ,,

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on 02 Dec 2009 at 11:56 am28TheWolfforever

[..YouTube..] some bee types R so calm

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on 29 Dec 2009 at 2:05 am29Aceregi

[..YouTube..] I thought queen bees doesn’t sting anything other than another queen bee.

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on 30 Mar 2010 at 1:45 pm30DesertxFox

[..YouTube..] Do you not even notice a bee’s sting? or is it just like a minor ant bite so to say..?

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on 30 Mar 2010 at 1:49 pm31bushkillfarms

[..YouTube..] @DesertxFox It depends on where I get stung, but yes I still notice and do get swelling in spots.

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on 06 Apr 2010 at 3:58 am32lovenmitt

[..YouTube..] thanks, i’m gonna try this tomorrow morning. (i thought my queen came marked, but apparently not!)

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on 20 Apr 2010 at 3:53 pm33grabiod44

[..YouTube..] ur not getting attacked by the bees, should they attack u?

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on 24 May 2010 at 3:16 am34TheZombiekid12

[..YouTube..] r u like so used 2 being stung it dont hurt u or something?

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on 26 May 2010 at 4:24 pm35BleekerSoL

[..YouTube..] How do you identify the Queen before it’s been marked?

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on 09 Jun 2010 at 1:23 pm36Scar246

[..YouTube..] Nice video, good explanation! Thx for posting.

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on 12 Jun 2010 at 4:18 pm37juliewashere88

[..YouTube..] I can’t believe they didn’t all swarm you just there. I guess I misunderstood bees.

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on 01 Jul 2010 at 7:36 am38BIGmanFACE

[..YouTube..] Great video, I like your Queen handling technique! I use the same brand of paint pens for marking worker bees during behaviour experiments, they work fantastically!

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on 05 Jul 2010 at 12:38 am39audayhussain2

[..YouTube..] ok,,thanx ,,let me ask you question,,concerning the feeding of a bee i try water+sugar+vitamin c efurvessent the bees are so eagerly took the syrup but after that some of the bees abdomen are inflated and get larger and die,,can you tell me why that?is it because the sugar concentration or because of vitamin c?and can you tell me what kind of feeding you use for your bees?

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on 11 Jul 2010 at 1:05 am40Tickets825

[..YouTube..] I need those pens

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on 21 Jul 2010 at 7:22 pm41N41J4

[..YouTube..] If you kill a Queen Bee, do all the bee’s come after you?

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on 22 Jul 2010 at 5:20 am42JuggaloKai2010

[..YouTube..] @N41J4 well not just a Queen bee when you kill any bee it gives off a Pheromone aka a chemical that tells the other bees that there is danger so it makes the other bees mad and they attack

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