[B]Queens to go[B]

[Jon]

I second that as well. I buy all the stuff for our queenrearing group there. Highly recommended.

[The Drone Ranger]

Picking up by the wings is easy. One or two. Buying another bit of kit just means having something else to forget to take to the apiary.
I have my doubts about the worry about scent too. These days I'm usually in latex gloves, sometimes bare-handed, and I've never had a problem. Never crushed a queen either although I have let them go by mistake whilst scrabbling for a marker pen or clippers.

If you want her in a plunger or other cage it is easier to pick her up and move her over. Bees can be reluctant to walk off comb onto an unfamiliar surface, upwards or any other dirention.

It just takes a little practice and then you're sorted for life! Need to dispense with any glove thicker than a mm or so ...


Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk

I crowned a queen with the crown of thorns early season
I can pick them up for marking etc
The tube is safer and better though plus you can keep the queen in there a while safely
So if you are rearranging combs for Snelgrove or Demaree its great
I'm a convert, but if I was to forget it I only have to walk back to the house
Stick one on the Christmas list Gavin price wise they are daylight robbery

[Dark Bee]

[QUOTE=The Drone Ranger;19415]I crowned a queen with the crown of thorns early season


A believe "Baldock Cage" is another name for this item. Now DR there is an opportunity to display your erudition to the less well informed.

[The Drone Ranger]

Fine Dark Bee
First I'll have to look up erudition but I am suffering from ennui due to the unseasonable weather

Had to google it but I see this is the "proper " name for the deadly enemy of queens also known as the crown of thorns
Still wondering about erudition

[Kate Atchley]

[QUOTE=Dark Bee;19419]

A believe "Baldock Cage" is another name for this item.

Ahhh ... learn something every day .... http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/clipmark.html.

Wet day, need amusement ... try this!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVY9H5zkRf8 (Handy for showing beginners how not to do it!)

[The Drone Ranger]

[QUOTE=Kate Atchley;19424]

Ahhh ... learn something every day .... http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/clipmark.html.

Wet day, need amusement ... try this!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVY9H5zkRf8 (Handy for showing beginners how not to do it!)

Gee Willikers that guy should get a better cage, a better pen ,and some tranquilisers

Kate have you been using your Horsley boards this year ?

[drumgerry]

If I had made such an arse of that as he did the last thing I'd be doing is putting it on Youtube!

Not sure what all the fuss is about marking with a crown of thorns tbh. I just blow the bees away from the queen with my deadly human breath and pin her down. Mark her, let her walk around under it a bit till it dries then let her go

[Kate Atchley]

[QUOTE=The Drone Ranger;19425]

Kate have you been using your Horsley boards this year ?

DR I have been concentrating on the queen rearing (with loads of help from you guys) so have not used the Horsley boards this year. Another member has borrowed a couple to try. Nothing to report yet.

[Dark Bee]

[QUOTE=Kate Atchley;19424][QUOTE=Dark Bee;19419]

Ahhh ... learn something every day .... http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/clipmark.html.

I had not realised that Dave C. had commented on the item. What he shows is the original cage, a circle of gramophone needles sticking out of a ring of paxolin or Bakelite. The modern product made for pennies in China is far inferior and very clumsy to use.
Baldock is a town on the Great North Road (A1) perhaps 30 miles north of London, I have often wondered what is the connection with the eponymous cage ?

[Black Comb]

Thornes sell them with a piece of foam to block the large end.