# injured queen



## frustrateddrone (Jan 31, 2015)

Listening to Fat Bee Man; when those queen catchers first came on the mkt, he had a boom in queen shipping. He loved it, but it's unfortunate. Uhm, I am not experienced in what you have created, but good luck in figuring out what your bees will decide. You on the other hand might just want to think really hard why you want to mess with a queen in the first place. Was it worth it? I have only seen my queens when I released them and maybe enough to count on 1 hand. I don't need to see the queen because when I see larvae and capped brood on 99% of a frame, she's doing a wonderful job and she exists.


----------



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Sorry.

If it were me I think I'd just let the bees sort it out. They'll make a new queen. 
This stuff happens and don't be too hard on yourself. Give that hive a break on inspecting if you can once you see queen cells started. 
I know I'd have to look. Never know she might get the job done with 5 legs. (doubt it)


----------



## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

I think only the bees know how to handle this situation, but in the meantime, take that queen catcher and smash it with a sledgehammer that way you'll never be tempted to use it again.


----------



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

I've had great success not injuring queens by catching them with a toy meant for kids to collect lightning bugs or whatever with.
It's handy as heck and I've posted about it several times. 
I love this thing!
https://www.farmandfleet.com/produc...Z2Vl3LnKu4fhaLlswN4M4Aza4OxN5UmtUPBoCu1fw_wcB

Look close and it comes apart. You can catch a queen and have her in the little observation tube part and take that part off.
My home made toilet paper tube queen marking tube fits right over the end so I can open the little cage and put her into the marking tube and never touch her. Yeah. I can mark queens without touching them. 
If you want some attendant bees suck up a few with the queen. With practice you can get exactly which bug your're aiming for.

I've got a few queen pinchers in my tool box. Beekeepers are suckers for little gadgets. Get the bug gun and then try to keep your grandkids from playing with it.


----------



## razoo (Jul 7, 2015)

aunt betty said:


> I've had great success not injuring queens by catching them with a toy meant for kids to collect lightning bugs or whatever with.
> It's handy as heck and I've posted about it several times.
> I love this thing!
> https://www.farmandfleet.com/produc...Z2Vl3LnKu4fhaLlswN4M4Aza4OxN5UmtUPBoCu1fw_wcB
> ...


Love this idea! 
Can you show us some pictures of your queen marking tube?


----------



## lharder (Mar 21, 2015)

Yes, with only a couple of hives best not to attempt manhandling a queen. For basic hive manipulation there is no need to. With 35 hives, I think I'm at the point where I need to start. The advice I was given was to start with drones first.


----------



## BCapiary (Apr 18, 2017)

Thanks to all for the advice, I really appreciate it. Being a noob I thought this might help in identifying the queen a lot faster. I can see this is wrong. Having looked hard for our queens, we actually got pretty good at it by not marking her and just pointing her out on a frame.

I will take the advice of smashing that tool with a hammer. A basic noob mistake, something we will learn from. Cost 14 bux for the catcher, but to replace the queen would be 35+shipping if we go that route. The weather here is going to be rainy for the next 3 days. Once nice, I will see if she is still alive or look for supercede/emergency queen cells. That will tell me whats up. Having already created a nuc with them building a queen, if I see queen cells, button up the box and check back in 3 weeks to see if I see eggs/young larva.


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

Bees are not hard to hold... Start with the drones. Pick them up by the wing. Turn them around into your non-dominate hand and carefully grasp. Rinse and repeat. Get rid of the leather gloves. Thin latex or nitrile if you don't want to go gloveless. Just ensure that they fit well. Take a queen cage and put several nurse bees in it.... Then use your confidence and trust yourself to pick up the queen.


----------



## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Queens have handles. See Michael Palmer give a very good short video demonstration on picking up queens and how to handle them. A minute and a half short video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EMhmfvHKFg


----------



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

razoo said:


> Can you show us some pictures of your queen marking tube?


Here's a picture. Cut three circles from 1" builder's foam with a 1.5" hole saw.
Glue them to a pencil. There's a pencil size hole in the centers from the hole-saw arbor.
A bit of foam tape to cushion the plunger. Tape on some veil material to a toilet paper tube. 
Have marked quite a few queens with it.


----------



## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Aunt Betty, please tell me you're not using that "Bug Catcher" gun to catch queens  I remember when we bought my son one of those to catch ants.


----------



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

I'm the billy the kid of bees. Yeah.


----------



## Nordak (Jun 17, 2016)

RayMarler said:


> Queens have handles. See Michael Palmer give a very good short video demonstration on picking up queens and how to handle them. A minute and a half short video...
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EMhmfvHKFg


:thumbsup:

I learned how to handle and mark queens watching Michael Palmer. Study his techniques and practice. I haven't hurt a queen yet, knock on wood. I had a little bit of experience catching insects and handling them delicately though as I was a butterfly nut as a kid. Same technique, just bigger "handles" and thorax.


----------



## BCapiary (Apr 18, 2017)

Update:

We went and performed a quick inspection of the hive/queen in question. The second frame we pulled out had eggs, young larvae and the queen herself on it! See is getting around on five legs and still laying. At some point we expect her to be superseded, but for now, she is laying and her attendants are paying no mind to the fact see is missing a leg. We looked at a couple more frames, and did not see any new cells and the queen cups we saw had no larvae or were being capped. Lesson learned the hard way, and I followed earlier advice and smashed that queen marker. It is now sitting at the bottom of my trash can.


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

That's good to know. Thanks for the followup...


----------

