Queen Marking Tube

[Bee Draggle]

Has anyone had any experience with the Queen Marking Tube as sold by some of the beekeeping supply companies? It's a plastic tube with a foam plunger for confining the queen and making her. Do you pick the queen up and place it the tube? If you have to pick her up, why not just go ahead and mark her while she's in your hand and skip the tube altogether. What am I missing here? Woud like to hear from folks you have actually used this this device.
Thanks

[shughes]

I really like mine. I place the frame that has the queen on it on a frame holder that is on the side of the box then gently "scoop" the queen into the tube. I usually mark her a few feet from the hive and then tap the tube over the frames for her to walk back in. They make those hair clip queen catchers but I have not found them useful when marking queens. Some grab her by the wing and mark her but I am not comfortable with that approach yet.

[Michael Bush]

You can catch her with a hair clip, put her and the tube in a queen muff and then transfer her to the tube. If she gets away put the tube over her until she runs up the tube and then put in the plunger. They work fine. But it's probably worth learning to catch and mark them with your fingers. This will require practice. Drones are the best to practice on. Use next year's color so you can tell them from your queens.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenre...m#Queenmarking

[ME Beekeeper]

I have both the queen catcher and the marking tube. I only use the queen catcher when she's in with a bunch of other bees, crowded, maybe trying to hide. Then I put her in the tube for the marking. I don't like to handle them any more then I have to. Maybe that's a personal thing. I like to leave them with their own scent intact as much as possible. I've lost a queen from possibly handling it too much as I tried to mark her by hand. You do have to be careful not to put too much paint on them. If it gets on their hairs, that’s bad. I’m told they use them for communicating. I have no problems with the tube, great invention.

Larry

[Bee Draggle]

I marked three of my queens today using the queen marking tube. Here is how I did it. I caught the queen with the queen hair clip. I then wrapped a 4"x 8" piece of computer paper around the end of queen tube forming a collar/sleeve. I then pushed the hair clip part way into paper sleeve and crumpled the the paper around the clip to seal off any escape route. I then squeeze open the hair clip enough for the queen to drop down into the tube where upon I removed the sleeve and quickly slipped in the plunger.

[staythecourse]

Grab it! She don't sting! And liquid paper does the trick!

(That's me trying to get the nerve to do it myself)

[Ross]

I sometimes shake mine into the tube from the clip, just cupping my hand around it. If it's a virgin, or a queen I think will fly easily I use the muff.

[Galaxy]

You can catch her with a hair clip, put her and the tube in a queen muff and then transfer her to the tube. If she gets away put the tube over her until she runs up the tube and then put in the plunger. They work fine.

Until last year, I had never marked a queen. I marked about twenty last year exactly as Micheal Bush described above. All, went very well.

[beegee]

I just pick her up and gently hold her by the legs/thorax. All the extra steps seem like, well, extra steps.