Well, thanks to some more experienced beekeepers who raise queens and mark them, I have switched to Posca fine tip acrylic markers (a water based paint). I also mark them by holding them gently in my fingers, rather than the marking tube. Though I still sometimes use the marking tube. I immediately noticed that the Posca paint went on easily and gets almost no adverse reaction from the bees once the queen is reintroduced to them - the finger nail polish had quite the opposite effect.
At first I thought it would be nice to mark the virgins to then see how they completed their matings and etc. Now, after having worked at marking about one dozen virgin queens, I believe I am done with marking virgins, at least for now.
Virgin queens are way too energetic and take flight way too readily :no:
I am probably just spoiled by all the mated/laying queens I have handled these past few years, but I have decided to only mark queens that are already mated/laying, which will help me to identify queens that are mated/laying vs virgin queens.
At first I thought it would be nice to mark the virgins to then see how they completed their matings and etc. Now, after having worked at marking about one dozen virgin queens, I believe I am done with marking virgins, at least for now.
Virgin queens are way too energetic and take flight way too readily :no:
I am probably just spoiled by all the mated/laying queens I have handled these past few years, but I have decided to only mark queens that are already mated/laying, which will help me to identify queens that are mated/laying vs virgin queens.