Hairclip queen catchers

[Michael Bush]

Beeworks has the "crown of thorns" device for marking.

I like the queen muff from Brushy Mt.  Very good insurance.

I don't clip them generally.  Occasionally I'll clip a breeder just so if her mark wears off I can still tell if it's the original queen.

They will swarm with or without the clipped queen.  They will just leave with the first virgin out.

[WV Hillbilly]

    Why doesn't the original queen kill the virgin queens ? I have always read that the first virgin queen to hatch kills the unhatched virgins . I thought the original queen & the swarm left before the virgin queens hatched .

[Michael Bush]

>Why doesn't the original queen kill the virgin queens ?

Laying queens don't try to kill anyone.

> I have always read that the first virgin queen to hatch kills the unhatched virgins .

Yes.  Virgins try to kill virgins.  They don't try to kill laying queens and laying queens don't try to kill anyone.

> I thought the original queen & the swarm left before the virgin queens hatched .

Usually, but not if the old queen is clipped.