Marking queens with discs best glue?

I have recently purchased a disc marking kit to mark ones queens with colours and numbers. Reading from a google search it seems the glue supplied might not be any good? Does anyone have any experience of this type of marking/bonding and what might they be using to bond the discs on with? cyanoacrylate (super glue) springs to mind but maybe this is a little toxic to something so small?

Thanks in advance

Rich

The supplied glue is terrible. The superglue is better but is a particular brand not the ordinary stuff....have to dig it out. But working out an application method is harder...fine alu tube in an alu sleeve works but can still get gummed up.

However, all the numbers rubbed off over the winter so seems like a total waste of time. Our bee improvement group will be using multi-coloured Humbrol enamels this year. Easy.

Cheers Susbees. The discs numbers ware off! eeeek. Where did your discs come from? I was hoping for great things;-) Will do a rub test when I get in from work to ascertain as to use them or just carry on with the good old pens from Toca. Let me know the glue though if you would please.
R

Not being funny but with a small number of colonies as I have too why would you want to number queens, I thought that type of detail was kept for AI type operations where lines were being propagated.

I just mark them white and put the year on the record card.

PH

I do the same though I now use a pink pen it stands out so much better

Poly Hive said:

Not being funny but with a small number of colonies as I have too why would you want to number queens, I thought that type of detail was kept for AI type operations where lines were being propagated.

I just mark them white and put the year on the record card.

PH

Click to expand...

Which is what we are doing in year 2 of our breeding group - getting the II system moving after the course last year (and improvers' course this)...

dickndoris said:

Cheers Susbees. The discs numbers ware off! eeeek. Where did your discs come from? I was hoping for great things;-) Will do a rub test when I get in from work to ascertain as to use them or just carry on with the good old pens from Toca. Let me know the glue though if you would please.
R

Click to expand...

It's Titebond GEL superglue. You could try a toothpick/cocktail stick but the tube thingy does work reasonably (bits from model shops).

Discs were Th**nes kit - one of our II group is an agent.

Thanks for the info on the glue. I will give it a go.
As to the discs. I have had 2 swarms that were not mine come into my apiary. I know this as I watched them fly over and rest above my main hives. I have also had another couple that were just there hanging off a branch one of which was a prime swarm when I got in from work. The discs, as I believe no one local is using them, plus I could put an extra mark on so I know they are my ones, would let me know if they were my queens, or should I say queens from my apiary as I feel I don't own bees, they own me ;-) Buggers :-D AND of course they are VERY easy to see especially when one is on large frames with lots of bees. I don't shake any brood frames or smoke, just breath a little garlic breath/curry breath on them:-D
Hope that helps a little.
R

Humbrol enamel. Simple. Cheap. Many colours. Sorted. Shake. Open. Take a small dot of the opened lid with one of those flat-ended chinese toothpicks. Perfect round mark. Done.

I have bought a pot or two of Humbrol enamel on the back of your recommendation.
£1.53 a pot, a bit cheaper than the alternative. I hope it dries quickly!

dickndoris said:

it seems the glue supplied might not be any good? Does anyone have any experience of this type of marking/bonding and what might they be using to bond the discs on with? cyanoacrylate (super glue) springs to mind but maybe this is a little toxic to something so small?

Click to expand...

Isn't it amazing how the same topics come up again and again? There is a recent conversation on marking here http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32518

I find superglue Gel to be about the best but you have to be very careful with it. In Germany, they use a dowel with a straight insect pin on one side (for applying the glue) and a bent insect pin on the other side (for applying the opilath plate). I find size 7 entemology pins are about the right size

Buzzy Bee Shop ones and glue seem to work.. I use a Challenge gimp pin in a bit of dowell for a handle to spot the queen with glue, and another with a bit of bee spit( honey) to pick up and position disc.

Noticed that the Green UniPosca pen markings are rubbing off already... the yellow and red seems to have been better wearing!

Yeghes da

icanhopit said:

I use a Challenge gimp pin in a bit of dowell for a handle to spot the queen with glue, and another with a bit of bee spit( honey) to pick up and position disc.

Click to expand...

Yes. A gimp pin head is about the same size as a number 7 insect pin but is much shorter. I think the gimp pin head is flat where the insect pin is round (so it will probably hold the glue better). At the end of the day, it comes down to what works for you

I thought I'd lost some years when I read this thread. 'Polyhive' posting again, Yipee. Just a revived thread, shame.

icanhopit said:

Buzzy Bee Shop ones and glue seem to work.. I use a Challenge gimp pin in a bit of dowell for a handle to spot the queen with glue, and another with a bit of bee spit( honey) to pick up and position disc.

Noticed that the Green UniPosca pen markings are rubbing off already... the yellow and red seems to have been better wearing!

Yeghes da

Click to expand...

I noticed that. I thought I'd lost two queens, but the marker was just completely gone. Just green seems to cause this problem. I wonder what is special about the green? More brittle than the others so can flake off, or is there something in the green that the bees can 'pick up' in the dark and clean it off the Queen? Going to get a different colour for next time round.

midnight sun said:

I noticed that. I thought I'd lost two queens, but the marker was just completely gone. Just green seems to cause this problem. I wonder what is special about the green? More brittle than the others so can flake off, or is there something in the green that the bees can 'pick up' in the dark and clean it off the Queen? Going to get a different colour for next time round.

Click to expand...

had two green marked uni posco queens last year that were 'unmarked' by spring this season, yet I found a green marked drone the other day that I marked well over a month ago (in green)

beecology said:

had two green marked uni posco queens last year that were 'unmarked' by spring this season, yet I found a green marked drone the other day that I marked well over a month ago (in green)

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Queens are 'pampered' by her retinue, a drone would not get any attention as such. Could it be then that the workers attending her can pick up this green colour by some chemical signal even in the dark and remove it?
Bit of a mystery!

midnight sun said:

Could it be then that the workers attending her can pick up this green colour by some chemical signal even in the dark and remove it?

Click to expand...

Bees are constantly rubbing against each other inside the hive. I think its more likely that the Posca pen was worn off

B+. said:

Bees are constantly rubbing against each other inside the hive. I think its more likely that the Posca pen was worn off

Click to expand...

It's certainly a possibility, but why not with red and blue. (granted blue is a resent mark.) I have a Queen marked red and therefore into her 3rd season and the mark is almost as good as when I put it on her. Maybe just lucky, but I have had other keepers mention that the green 'disappears' and the other colours not so.

midnight sun said:

It's certainly a possibility, but why not with red and blue. (granted blue is a resent mark.) I have a Queen marked red and therefore into her 3rd season and the mark is almost as good as when I put it on her. Maybe just lucky, but I have had other keepers mention that the green 'disappears' and the other colours not so.

Click to expand...

I don't know. Perhaps its more durable.