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The queen marking device is one of the most important in beekeeping after the framed hive. You can do without a smoker, many even flaunt this fact. You can not use the honey extractor and sell honey in combs. But in every bee colony there must be a prolific queen. And the beekeeper must know when it is time to replace this female with a new one. And here you can’t do without a label on the queen bees.
The simplest device for marking in form and essence is very similar to a regular marker, but it does not contain alcohol paint, but a special varnish. There are also more difficult to use opalite labels with numbers. They already require their own “related equipment”, but such tags are more resistant. But everywhere and always in order to mark the queen bee, it must be found.
How to identify a queen in a hive
A fertile female differs from ordinary bees in the length of the abdomen and the width of the breast. She also has differences in color, but this difference is so small that it will hardly be possible to catch it at first sight. And you need to find the uterus quickly, as she tries to hide and constantly moves to a secluded place.
Workers cover the queen. You need to look for it where there are most bees. The abdomen of the female often sticks out from under the accumulation of bodies of worker bees. The second option, which also catches the eye: a large and shiny spot of the breast. The back of the female is smooth and black, as it is not covered with hairs, as in worker bees. This difference is clearly visible against the general background of “fluffy” insects. The queen is too big for the bees to completely hide it. The belly or breast will definitely “give out” the queen bee.
How to determine the presence of a queen in a hive
There is no need to look for queens at each examination. This is a gross interference in the life of the colony. There are signs of a healthy family, which, even without a thorough examination, will indicate the usefulness of the swarm. There are also signs that the bees were left without a queen.
The presence of a high-quality fertile female is determined by the brood. If there is a one-day laying of eggs or unsealed brood in the hive, the queen is available and working.
But you need to take a closer look at the laid eggs. If there is no uterus in the hive, a tinder bee can take over its functions. In this case, sowing eggs will be uneven. The tinder skips the cells and lays 2-3 eggs in one.
It is impossible to visually distinguish a tinder from working individuals. But sometimes an aged or diseased uterus is also unable to work. Such a female must be found and replaced with a new one.
How to find a queen in a swarm
There are some secrets on how to quickly find the queen in the hive:
- do not rely on the preserved label;
- do not abuse the smoker, the swarm will begin to hide the queen bee;
- find the frames where the most bees are;
- pay attention to the behavior of insects, bees are calmer near the uterus, several of them are always head to the queen;
- after removing one of the frames, immediately look at the next one remaining in the hive, the uterus may be there;
- on the removed frame, first of all, examine the side that was in the shade, the queens tend to hide in a dark place;
- you need to start inspecting the frame from the edges, if the uterus was closer to the edge, it can run away to the opposite side of the comb;
- special attention should be paid to a ball of bees, working individuals hide the queen, covering it with their bodies.Important! It is enough to blow on such a cluster so that the insects crawl around and open the uterus, if it is there;
- the best option: searching for the uterus together, so you can simultaneously check both sides of the frame at once.
Before starting the search for the uterus, the extreme frames in the hive are taken out and set aside. There are usually no females on them, and there are few working individuals. The removal of the extreme frames will make it possible to rearrange the combs already examined a little to the side so that the uterus does not crawl onto them again.
There is an easier way that does not require special attention and does not take much time. To detect the queen, you will need a metal mesh frame that completely covers the hive. The size of the longitudinal holes in the grid is 4,5 mm. You can choose a suitable mesh yourself or buy it in a specialized store.
All bees are shaken off on one half of the hive, and a frame with a grid is placed in the middle. After that, the swarm is distilled from one half to the other. The smaller workers will pass through the net, while the larger drones and queen will remain on the first half of the hive.
The third method is quite laborious and risky, but does not require special devices:
- in the evening, in warm, dry weather, they wait for the bees to return home;
- a sheet is spread in front of the hive;
- all the bees from the frames are gently shaken onto it;
- without sudden movements, they kneel down and carefully examine the bees crawling along the sheet;
- having found the uterus, it is carefully covered with a special cap and placed in a cell;
- the sheet is moved closer to the hive and a board is attached to the notch;
- after the bees have returned home, you can take care of the queen.
Most often, this method is used when you need to replace the queen. In this case, a new female is not planted immediately, but only in the morning. So a colony that feels orphaned will better accept a new queen. If you just need to put a mark, the queen is marked and placed back in the hive.
If you do not grab it right away, it can take off. Mostly unfertilized queens take off. Perhaps it makes sense to replace the “flying” queen.
How to know if there is a queen in the hive without opening the hive
In the summer, when the colonies are working at full strength, experienced beekeepers do not recommend disturbing the bees once again. But at the same time, it is necessary to control the presence of a queen in the family in order for the colony to flourish. It is possible, without opening the hive and without disturbing the insects, to determine whether the bees have a queen. There are some signs of the absence of a queen in the hive:
- A family without a queen makes a special buzz. This is not the “cry” of a colony that has just lost a female. The sound is different.
- The hive is worn out, because the insects are excited and consume too much food.
- Worker individuals do not carry into the hive the pollen necessary for feeding the larvae.
- The bees are “lazy”, fly reluctantly, take off only after running to the edge of the arrival board.
- Workers take off and immediately return.
- Bees from an orphaned family are characterized by the behavior of “begging” for their own hive.
Bees caught in bad weather often have to ask for someone else’s hive in order to wait out the bad weather. Only “loaded” individuals are allowed freely into a strange family. The “empty” bee has to beg for permission to enter for a long time, raising its abdomen up and quickly flapping its wings. But in a queenless colony, this behavior is demonstrated by family members.
Owners of small apiaries can determine the absence of a queen in the family by observing the behavior of insects. In large industrial apiaries, it is easier to put a mark and then look for queens visually.
How to check for a queen if there is no brood
The situation when there is no brood at all in the hive, neither fresh nor sealed, does not mean that there is no queen there, and a new one must be urgently planted. The uterus in the colony may be present, but not working. The reasons why the queen does not lay eggs are different:
- inability to fly due to congenital deformity after the varroa mite;
- bad weather during the flight;
- the absence of nearby drones from other apiaries;
- any disease.
If there is a queen in the hive, it is impossible to plant another one there. The bees will kill the stranger. Visually, it is also not always possible to find a female, especially if she is still not there.
First you need to make sure that the uterus is really missing. Do this with the help of a control frame with brood.
A frame with open brood is placed in the hive and the date is signed. Wait 2 days. If there is no queen in the colony, the bees will start building fistulous queen cells. In the presence of a female, workers will simply seal the brood.
In the absence of queen cells, you will have to look for a female. This individual will need to be removed and a new fetal queen placed in the colony.
Why you need to mark queens
An amateur beekeeper with a small apiary can afford to rely on memory or records and change queens as needed. But it is much more convenient to mark queen bees. Bright spots allow you to quickly find a female among working individuals. And with a large apiary, they also make it easier to control the age of the queen bees. When breeding breeding queens for sale, tags help to trace the pedigree of the future queen of the swarm. Setting the label is not a very laborious operation, which greatly facilitates the life of the beekeeper in the future.
How can you mark the queen bee
For bees use the same means as for other insects:
- paint;
- varnish;
- opalite marks;
- homemade compositions.
The main requirement for all labels is bright colors, so that the queen immediately “strikes the eye”. Sometimes experienced beekeepers mark queens by clipping their wings.
Paints have certain disadvantages. Workers are industrious creatures. They constantly cleanse from pollen and dirt not only themselves, but also their queen. Because of this, the paint is quickly erased. That is why when looking for a queen in a hive, you should not count on a mark, especially after wintering. Another disadvantage of paint marks: you can’t put down either the year or the number on it.
Opalite tags are the most resistant, but require additional equipment:
- BF-6 glue or Shellac alcohol solution;
- spatula for applying glue or, at least, a toothpick;
- a match or the same spatula for applying a mark to the glue.
Opalite marks are light, but hard and large enough to prevent the female from checking the cells. Another drawback of the opalite label is that it must be glued very carefully. The label is glued exactly in the middle of the upper chest or closer to the back end.
Sometimes they use ordinary nail polish, but such a marker for the uterus is undesirable, it contains too many harmful substances. Also, do not use celluloid dissolved in acetone and acetone paint. Acetone, contained in all “folk” means for tags, can damage chitin.
Colored labels for queens by years
For an amateur beekeeper who breeds females for sale, it does not matter how to mark the queens. The main thing for him is not to get confused in the label system. In an industrial apiary or in breeding beekeeping, it is better to adhere to the international labeling system. In this system, 5 colors are used to mark queens by year. The five-year cycle is designed because when breeding for more than 5 years, the female is not kept and replaced with a new one. Colors of labels of queens by years:
- yellow – 2012/2017/2022;
- red – 2013/2018/2023;
- green – 2014/2019/2024;
- blue – 2015/2020/2025;
- white – 2016/2021/2026.
To calculate what color the label will be in the future, it is enough to add five years.
Labeling of queen bees by clipping wings
A rather complicated method that is used by experienced beekeepers. Some consider this method to be optimal, since there is no danger that glue or paint will spread over the entire chest and flow onto the head.
With this method, the female is held by the thumb and forefinger of the left hand by the chest. Insect wings are free. Manicure scissors make marks, figuratively cutting off the wings. In this case, the beekeeper decides how to mark the uterus.
Opponents of wing cutting have reason to be negative. If the female bee really did not need wings after the flight, she would lose them when she returned to the hive. Maintaining viable wings is a waste of energy. Ant females bite off their wings immediately after fertilization. If the queen bees do not lose their wings, then they are needed.
The second drawback of the method: a limited number of options for labels and the danger of pressing the insect too hard.
Queen markers
Inexperienced beekeepers are better off using bee markers. When using these “felt-tip pens” it is not necessary to press down the insect. It is enough just to put the marker rod on the back of the uterus. For serious work in the apiary, it is better to stock up with markers of all 5 colors.
You don’t even have to pick up the queen bee to mark it with a marker. There is a special device for immobilizing the female.
Other methods and devices for labeling queens
Fundamentally, there are no other devices for marking bees. Only the dyes used for labeling differ:
- stationery proofreader;
- nail polish;
- fluorescent varnish.
This is where the desire to save money comes into play. Special markers are much more expensive than stationery and cosmetics.
Additional non-standard equipment can only be attributed to the holder for the frame, which the author of the video shows:
Opalite tags are made from lightweight grades of plastic or foil. They are industrially marked with numbers from 1 to 100. But due to the high cost and complexity of use in amateur beekeeping, these marks are rarely used.
How to determine that there is no queen in the hive
The situation when there is no one to mark in the hive does not happen so rarely. It can be difficult for beginners to determine if there is a queen in the colony. Because of such mistakes, the colony manages to die before the beekeeper understands what is wrong.
If there is no queen in the hive, the nurse bees also begin to bring honey, moving into the category of foragers. A beginner with a large amount of honey can even please. But working individuals gradually die of old age, and their replacement by young ones does not occur. As a result, the colony gradually dies out.
How bees behave without a queen
Without a queen bee, the character of the bees deteriorates. They become lazy and moody. They react to the opening of the hive with a specific buzzing. Often, workers build queen cells that remain empty. The amount of honey increases, but foragers stop bringing pollen to the hive.
Often you can observe a specific fine trembling of the wings. This trembling is different from the asking posture, which is also characteristic of individuals from an orphaned family.
What to do if the queen disappeared in the hive
The way in which orphaned families are corrected depends on the time of year when the colony lost its female. If this happened in winter or early spring, a fetal female from another family is planted in the hive.
If it turned out that the bees do not have a queen in July, and the honey flow in the region stops in early August, you can take your time with the correction. Foragers will apply more honey. But in August, open brood should be placed in the hive so that the family does not get sick.
Correction of a queenless family in the fall is the easiest. For this, two families are united: queenless and full-fledged.
Conclusion
A womb-marker, for all its simplicity, is essential for serious business. It does not harm the bees, but it helps the beekeeper to navigate the timing of the replacement of old females.
