Marking your Hives

[concrete-bees]

Ozone
the brand does not have to be your name - it can be anything that you have contol of the iron - so if you have a branding iron of the word IT - then all the boxes with that word it are in reallity your - if the brand fits - and it should if someone stole your boxes

Also Update on my post from last year- I am just days from recieving my branding iron from Brandnew Industry - they are FAST and GREAT Service !!!!!!!! they are doing a CNC head for mine and its just numbers !!!! so they take pride in the work --
i now have over 1000 boxes -so its worth the buy !!!!!!

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

So what about painting the insides with a stencil???

[tben]

I wanted to brand my hives for reasons similar to Mr. Bush's but with only a couple of hives any investment in branding equipment would be impractical. Instead I found a uniquely shaped piece of metal in my garage, set it on each box, and burned around it with a propane torch.

[The Honey Householder]

For a guy that buys and sales bees and equipment. All the stamps and burnings don't do me any good. I get calls sometimes tell me they found my equipment 2 states away. Well its not mine if I sold it. Only wish they can find the equipment I reported missing.

[ryanbekke]

Here is a link to some that are reasonably priced with free shipping http://www.rockler.com/c/branding-ir...randing%20iron

[Ted Kretschmann]

We brand not one side but all four sides, right above the handholds. One brand will not stop a thief but four brand marks, well that is just too much work for a theiving beekeeper. Even brand several frames in the box. John and Sherri are right. The thief can just slip into your yards and steal the middle out of the box. I had that happen in the Almond groves. Even had 90 hives disappear. But when the would be thief was confronted, the hives mysteriously were found. If the hives had not been so heavily mark, I doubt I would have gotten them back. That was the end of my Almond pollination days. The moral of the story is Brand, You MUST!! TED

[BMAC]

set aside the folks that pollinate what about putting game cams in your yards around your hives? They are not terribly expensive and should be clear enough to see them and possibly get a license plate number to report the theft. I know it will not do the pollinators any good at all but for the folks that only run on honey it would be less work and better chance of getting your stuff back.

[Michael Bush]

>but what about we Oppenheimers?

I put BUSHFARMS.COM on the last branding iron I bought and that's 2 more letters than Oppenheimer...

[Grant]

I paint my hives obnoxious colors from the mistint aisle. Either thieves need to be color blind or they'll find it's too much work to repaint the hives. I also have my bees in used equipment so crappy there's no way any self-respecting thief would want them.

Never had a problem...thus far.

Grant
Jackson, MO

[Bens-Bees]

This is just my two cent's worth and I'm just becomming a real sideliner this year, so take it with a grain of salt, but I imagine the odds of finding stolen hives/equipment is slim to none, so there's not a lot of point in heavily investing in branding it, especially if you sell any of it. So here's what I do, I have two large stencils that I use to spraypaint the outsides of my boxes with BEES on two sides opposite each other, and my logo/brand on the other side along with my phone number, registration number, and the year that the box was assembled. It's quick and inexpensive and it lets me see how old the equipment is at a glance which also helps me determine which equipment I can pair up with what other equipment (some of my earlier boxes put the bee space at the bottom, but my later boxes have bee space at the top and I can't pair up two different boxes without causing bee space problems). I admit that if it got stolen all they'd have to do is paint over it, but really, what are the odds I'd ever find them anyway?

As for the inside frames, I used to brand them with my registration number and the year of assembly with a cheap soldering iron for some ungodly reason... what a waste of time. I picked up the idea to just mark them with a sharpie and call it good enough. It takes way less time and is just as legible. Truth be told even marking the registration number on them is a waste of time, but it doesn't take much time now that I'm just writing it and I consider my registration number as part of my brand and I'm proud of my bees and my brand.

I like the idea for the trail/wildlife cam... though it might just give the theives something else to steal if it's in plain sight, on the other hand, if it's one that uploads pictures wirelessly and has a built in GPS to track it (high end model) if the theif steals it they'd be making themselves all that much easier to catch.

One more thought... really hot bees... go ahead steal them suckers... make their day! LOL

[honeyshack]

i mark my hives with alflex cattle tags or feedlot z tags. I pick tag colors depending on the queen year. Cattle tag marking pens are good to have on hand too. Mark the type of queen, date installed. Any other marks i need i use colored thumb tacks in the bottom board...for questionble hives. Three tacks it's out

Feedlot z tags are cheaper. Just imagine the look on your vets face when you tell them you want to tag your bees... lol

[MTINAZ]

I got some brass valve tags that I screw into the lid. Makes it easy to track queens and mite tests.