Clipping and Marking Queens | Beekeeping Academy | Ep. 43

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks Dr. Ellis! You are really cranking out lots of beneficial video tutorials lately. Outstanding! Glad you delved into wing clipping.

[@UFHoneyBeeLab1]

Glad you're enjoying our videos!

[@UTsnowsailor]

Thank you for high quality educational videos

[@rickwarner516]

Thank you

[@boldger13]

Beekeeping is cool!

[@BakerBees]

Great Info, Thanks

[@jasonseaward8506]

I remember the 1st time i picked my queen up, my fingers were sticky with propolis and so i struggled maneuvering her. In the spring i want to try doing my inspections using those nitrile gloves so that when i fond her, my hands will still be fresh and clean. Thsnk you very much for sharing this video.

[@tachedegraisse1303]

You can even mark her with nitrile gloves. I mark a lot of them with nitrile gloves. I love nitrile gloves :) xD

[@jasonseaward8506]

@tachedegraisse1303 I'm not surprised but I assume the nitrile gloves will get sticky like my hands did so the thought is that once I find her, I take the sticky gloves off (the gloves come off lol) and then I'll have fresh hands to handle her. At least that's my thought and so I'm gonna try that in the spring

[@UFHoneyBeeLab1]

Let us know how that goes for you! Sounds like a good idea.

[@tachedegraisse1303]

​@@jasonseaward8506 Taking off a glove is better, that's for sure. But the problem is that putting the glove back on afterward is really difficult because the glove is damp.

[@Rhams3y]

I don't mark my queens, but I do offer to mark queens in nucs I'm selling. I find that I can find a queen fairly quickly even when unmarked, even in large swarms. However, there have been multiple times when finding a queen after I mark her and it takes me forever. One time, a queen was marked with neon blue and the individual I was selling a nuc to asked for me to help with the install and finding the queen. I felt like such an idiot with how many times I went through the frames to find her. Something about looking for the mark is so much harder for me personally than scanning for how she moves across the comb.

[@UFHoneyBeeLab1]

Sounds like you've had lots of practice finding queens! Thanks for sharing.

[@ApisMelliferaLinguistica]

Any tips for finding queens? I'm a new beekeeper and I haven't been able to find my queens yet!

[@meloneycrews]

I’m not an expert like Jamie but am pretty good at finding queens and my best tip would be to not try to focus on each bee looking for her..look across at the farm and just focus on looking for a different movement is the only way I can describe it. There is a great book that is fun that just came out recently teaching how to find queens. If I can find the name of it I’ll post it for you.

[@UFHoneyBeeLab1]

We have a video on that subject coming out soon! A quick piece of advice would be to look at each side of your frames, starting in the upper left corner, in a zigzag pattern. It gets easier with practice, but even seasoned beekeepers can find themselves stumped sometimes.