This is my way to clip & mark queens. Before finding my queen, I get my marker ready. This year it is Blue. I have a marking pin that I got from the bee supplier, Dadant & Sons, Rossman, Brushy Mountain, Walter T. Kelley, etc. Or you can buy them from Office Depot, Office Max, or most office supply companies.

There are a number of queen catchers and holders on the market, but I am not going to go into that here. I use my fingers (no gloves) and pick up the queen either by her body or wings. Since I am right handed, I pick her up with my right thumb and index finger and place her on the middle finger of my left hand. She will automatically grab the finger and hold on tight.

With my left index finger and thumb, I hold her at the thorax so I don’t squash her abdomen, or take a chance on hurting her in the eyes or antennea.  With a small pair of scissors, I clip her hind wing about 1/4 to 1/2 way from the end making sure that her leg is not caught in the wing. If she loses a leg, then the bees could decide that she is no good and supersede her.

The next thing is to mark her on the back of the thorax on the big ball. I dab just enough paint on her to make a circle as big as the ball spot or maybe just a little smaller. I try not to get too much on her as the paint will close up one of her breathing holes if it runs down that far.

Now there are other ways to mark the queen using glue and spots, but these are used by beekeepers and researchers for identifying marks for breeding and research purposes. I am doing neither so I just paint her with a circle of paint.

I blow on the paint to dry it so I can gently place her back on the frame and put it back in the hive. She should be fine and the bees will continue to care of her as always.

I said that this would be lengthy, but I cut it down some of you wouldn’t get sleepy or lose interest.

Picking up the queen can be quite traumatic if you are just starting out. Practice on some drones first to get the hang of it. After you get confident, then move on to the queen. Picking up workers are the same way but now you have a reason to be careful!.

If you have any questions, you can make a comment to this post, or you can talk to a beekeeper and get him/her to show you how to pick up, clip, and mark your queen.

At this time, your bees should be making babies getting ready for the Spring honey flow. I hope you are ready. Bye bye for now.