>     How is a queen bee supposed to be held in the hand to be marked with
>a dab of paint?
>     I have picked queen bees up to clip their wings.  First, I
>picked them off the comb by their wings and then held them in the other
>hand with thumb and forefinger above and below the thorax while I clipped
>one side.  Today, I picked up a queen bee to paint it and realized that
>the grip for clipping won't work for painting.  I ended up holding the
>queens by putting thumb and forefinger on the sides of the thorax and part
>of the abdomen, too.  Can they be painted while being held by the wings?
>     Further, the first of two queens I marked scooted to a crevice between
>frame and comb and appeared to be trying to reach the fresh dab of White
>Out on her thorax with one of her legs.  The second queen did not act as
>though she were upset by the paint.
>     I was clipping queens because, in the Spring of '95, we had no feral
>bees in our area and swarms had a wide choice of homes.  I wanted a
>chance to catch the swarms before they left for a new home.
> Tim Sterrett,
>Westtown, Pennsylvania, USA
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>
 
My preferred way of marking queens is the following:
 
1-  supposing you are right-handed, grab the queen by the wings with your
right hand;
 
2-  with the palm of your left hand facing you, press gently the queen on
the inside of the forefinger of your left hand.  The queen will naturally
have her legs envelopping your forefinger;
 
3-  gently sqeeze her two back legs between you thumb and forefinger (left
hand);
 
4-  at the same time, bring the finger next to your forefinger (how do you
call the finger next to the forefinger, called "le majeur" in french?)
against the right side of the thorax of the queen;
 
5-  now the queen is completely immobilised and you can release the wings.
Use your right hand to mark.
 
 
Its is higly recommandable to put the queen in a cage for a short period
after marking.  In many cases the queen will be killed by balling because of
her strange smell if released in the hive right after marking.
 
 
Jean-Pierre Chapleau
eleveur de reines / queen breeder
vice-president du Conseil canadien du miel / Vice-president of the Canadian
Honey Council
1282, rang 8, Saint-Adrien de Ham, Quebec, Canada, J0A 1C0
tel./phone (819) 828-3396; fax (819) 828-0357
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