Past queen marking tube - G type

Queen Bee Marking and Catching Plunger – Safe and Comfortable Marking

Marking queen bees is very useful in practice, but catching them "by hand" can be unnecessarily risky for both the beekeeper and the queen herself. If you want to remove the queen from the comb gently and without fear of damaging her, the marking and catching plunger will significantly facilitate and streamline the entire process. It is an ideal and safe choice for professionals, beginner beekeepers, or those who do not have sufficient sensitivity in their fingers for manual delicate handling.

Why This Plunger Works and What Benefits It Brings

This well-designed tool combines two functions in one: it allows you to gently catch the queen directly from the comb without direct contact and then safely fix her for marking. This minimizes stress and risk of injury to an absolute minimum. The transparent plastic cylinder body gives you constant visual control over the queen's position, so you work much more calmly and precisely. The key part is a special plunger with a soft foam pad (foam rubber), which when pressing the queen against the grid provides optimal pressure and perfectly protects the queen from being crushed.

How to Use the Plunger Correctly

The procedure is very quick, intuitive, and completely safe. The queen is admitted through the side opening in the cylinder (or by gentle pressing from the comb) and gently moved with the plunger toward the grid so that her thorax faces it. Her thorax safely fits into any square of the grid, which is precisely dimensioned for her size. This keeps her in a fixed position. Through the grid openings, you can easily and precisely apply a mark with paint, marker, or opalith disc. After the paint dries, simply pull back the plunger, open it, and release the queen back to the safety of the hive.

International Color Marking of Queen Bees

A marked queen is much easier to find in the colony and the beekeeper has perfect overview of her age and colony condition. Color marking of queens is internationally standardized and serves for quick orientation regarding the year the queen was born. Using a small colored dot or numbered opalith disc applied to the queen's thorax, you immediately know how old the queen you are working with is. 5 colors rotate cyclically according to the last digit of the current year:

White color: years ending in digits 1 and 6
Yellow color: years ending in digits 2 and 7
Red color: years ending in digits 3 and 8
Green color: years ending in digits 4 and 9
Blue color: years ending in digits 5 and 0

Technical Parameters