Age is cruel - we have to use glasses to see things closer than the length of our arms and our, ability to see contrast and in low light also degrades.  At nearly 70, I can still see eggs, but I have to work harder than my young students and employees, and when we are measure areas of open brood for research, I defer to the youngest on the crew for accuracy.

I've tried magnifiers, flashlights, cameras - but nothing really helped, other than turning my back to sun and using it to illuminate the bottom of cells.  And the dark cells were still a challenge.  Overcast days, forget it.

This summer, I solved the problem.  Yellow lenses in glasses!  Cheapest source, buy Safety Glasses with yellow lenses sold in most any hardware store, box stores like Lowes and Home Depot.  Similar glasses, usually more expensive, are found in the gun/archery section of Sporting Good stores.  And, these are also sold as Night Driving glasses.  They reportedly improve contrast.

We were starting a new experiment on a cool, cloudy day, and the crew was measuring areas of capped and uncapped brood.  Once again, how do us old timers see the eggs on overcast days?  And then I thought  of yellow glasses.

They work!

Not only that, but even the youngest employee said it was like night and day in dark combs.  Quick trip back to hardware stores, and everyone was using yellow glasses.

If its really overcast and the combs old and dark, combine the yellow glasses with one of the new high lumens output, LED, pencil flashlights.  Between the two, eggs easy to see in any comb.

One bit of advice, try the flashlight before buying - I've found that LED lights vary considerably from the advertised lumens - some are really dim, some very bright, and price isn't a reliable indicator of which ones are good.  I spent about $35 for the highest output Maglite that I could find.

Why it took me so many years to think to try yellow glasses - don't know.  But glad I found the answer.

Jerry




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