One Handed Queen Catcher
One Handed Queen Catcher
Today I'd like to tell you about a fantastic tool I use. It's called the one-handed queen catcher. I've been keeping bees for approximately 9 years and I have used many different methods of capturing and marking queen bees, but recently I purchased the one-handed queen catcher. Because I killed a queen with the classic method of catching the queen and transferring her to a marking tube, I was frustrated. Queen bees are expensive and time consuming to replace. So I decided to look for another solution for catching and marking queens.
Well Made Tool
The one handed queen catcher is versatile and well made. I've been able to effortlessly capture queen bees and mark them without difficulty. The whole process takes less than a minute.
Ease of Use
The rubber mesh rolls down like a garage door to safely capture the queen. The soft foam plunger can then be raised up to restrict the queen’s movement. Then I use a paint marker to put a paint dot through the slots in the rubber on the queen bee's thorax and let the plunger back down to allow the queen to move freely while the paint dries. The queen can then be caged or reintroduced to her hive within minutes. If you would like to see the one handed queen catcher in action than click on the play button below to watch me using this device.
Pays for Itself
Although this queen catcher seems pricey, it pays for itself with the replacement of one queen. Queen honey bees can normally cost between 25 and 40 dollars. I simply cannot say enough good things about this tool.
I now use the one handed queen catcher for catching and marking all of my queens. Absolutely a one handed tool, it is the easiest way I have found to mark a queen bee. About the only thing this tool doesn't do is find the queen on a crowded frame of bees!