Keith,
You and I have perhaps had a few disagreements, mainly because I know NOTHING
about Alaska except I know that the U.S. bought it from Russia just after the
end
of our Civil War for only about 6-7 million dollars, and the American public
called it Secretary of State Seward, "Sewards Folly".

However, as a scientist (which you seem to discredit or have little
confidence),
I have ALWAYS (over 50 years) painted my queens on their thorax with TESTOR'S
hobby paint, which is NOT waterbased, but linseed oil and turpentine, and it
never
comes off, nor seem to bother the queen or the workers.  The Testor Paint pen
is just an industrial improvement (and more cost) to when I have to buy a
little
bottle and a tiny artist paint brush to paint my queens.  I STRONGLY recommend
Testor's paint pens, but trim the sponge point before it ever has paint on it.

Before my strokes, I had 135 colonies, ALL with marked queens.  You cannot
tell
that a queen that you see in  hive on September 1st is the same queen that you
saw back in May, no matter if you have 20-20 vision without glasses, UNLESS
SHE
IS MARKED.

So what?, you might say.  When I have worked hard for years to maintain a
DOCILE
bee, disease resistant, great wintering bee, high honey producer, starting
with
an Artificially Inseminated queen to keep my Carniolans as pure as possible,
then I want to be able to recognize a queen in my colony and know that she is
not some daughter queen who was fathered by all those TOM, DICK, and HARRY'S
that
just happened to be around.  One might have been Italian, another a Caucasian,
another an African "killer bee" (apis mellifera scutellata), and an Aunt
Mary's
backyard drone.

Maybe linage and hence breeding is not important to you; but it is to me.  Not
implying that I am better than others, but I am proud of my SCOT heritage, and
known as a WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant), and my four sons and two
grandsons have followed my thinking.  I now have 2 GREAT GRANDDAUGHTERS, ages
8 and 3, first girls in 5 generations in my family.  I hope to be alive to
instruct
them in their linage selection.

Have a nice day, and MARK YOUR QUEENS

George

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