Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Beekeeping 101 => Topic started by: Jen on April 22, 2022, 03:43:47 pm
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Iddee, what is the purpose of putting the queen in alcohol?
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1. Easiest way to kill her.
2.. Makes a good swarm lure for your swarm trap.
Leaves the pheromone and evaporates the alcohol in the trap.
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Iddee, I was in a hive today and the queen is old and ran out of gas. So I got her and put her in the jar with alcohol. I already have a swarm trap set up on our back bank for about a week now. I put a drop of lemongrass oil and a frame of dark wax in the trap. Should I let the queen dry off for awhile before adding her to the trap tomorrow?
(https://i.ibb.co/GnvK2Xh/278383341-528789072099221-1726719783292830163-n.jpg) (https://ibb.co/GnvK2Xh)
(https://i.ibb.co/tzS0cT4/278828468-2189679624520941-1260189814306797133-n-1.jpg) (https://ibb.co/tzS0cT4)
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No. Give it a few more days, then just add a few drops of alcohol to the landing board about weekly. Keep adding queens to the lure as you have them. The alcohol evaporates and leaves the pheromone smell.
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Queen Tincture. This conversation just got interesting!
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I'm intrigued about this alcohol lure. But what if I'm not going to have another queen this season to add to the lure... but need the swarm lure right now? Can I simply put the queen in the swarm trap?
Then, if i catch a swarm can I simply put the alcohol queen back into the jar for future use... ?
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"Queen Tincture. This conversation just got interesting!"
Baker! Love the term Queen Tincture! This should be it's own subject.
Last year I bought some Swarm Commander gel hanging thingies from Blythewood Bee Company. With tax this is close to $20 for just one.
https://blythewoodbeecompany.com/collections/swarm-commander/products/swarm-commander-super-lure
Love that I can make my own Queen Tincture with my own queens, or anyone else's dead queens. Fascinating!
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I can only tell you what I know. Anything else is research.
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Wait.. am I doing it wrong??? I put a swab of the tincture in the hive NOT the dead queen?
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Correct. I dab a q-tip in the alcohol and put that in the trap.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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Fascinating!
Jen: "Should I let the queen dry off for awhile before adding her to the trap tomorrow?"
Iddee: "No. Give it a few more days, then just add a few drops of alcohol to the landing board about weekly. Keep adding queens to the lure as you have them. The alcohol evaporates and leaves the pheromone smell."
So I'm reading this as put the queen in the alcohol, which lets the pheromone perfume up the alcohol. Which i'm assuming can be rubbing alcohol or vodka. Then after a few days put a few drops onto the landing board.
In my case, my queen was only in the alcohol overnight. So that's not very potent pheromone alcohol. I took my queen out of the alcohol and placed her directly in the swarm trap. When and if I catch a swarm, I'll retrieve her from the bees and put her back in the alcohol.
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Alcohol is a preservative. Without it, she will rot away in a day or two, or the ants will eat her.
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I use Spirytus Vodka (https://kegnbottle.com/products/spirytus-rektyfikowanyrectified-in-kalisz-750-ml?variant=39247320252545¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6pOTBhCTARIsAHF23fKPFDFlg7K9KV7I1bwVbvbD27w0tGKJGUPAEL5_cZ5kgjUX_qx8i7YaAqNREALw_wcB)for my tinctures. If unavailable, ever clear is probably your next best bet
I personally wold never drink either :o
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I personally wold never drink either
NOPE! Me either!!!! ever again! :laugh:
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Aaand Thhhen there is Diesel Grain 190 ~ 153 proof, which of course would make me throw up.
Think I'll get me some cheap Absolute 80 proof for the Queen Tincture :D
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I like the term queen tincture but starting to groove on "essential oil of queen" as a very close second!
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I like the term queen tincture but starting to groove on "essential oil of queen" as a very close second!
OH Politically correct!!!!! HEY TED!!!!!
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Good one Ted ;) Essential Oil of Roil T
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this is several years worth of retired queens. i've not seen this as being effective. if i set a caged queen or 2 down on say the rail of my truck bed 5-20 bees will congregate on that spot for up to a week. as an experiment i've done the same thing with a q-tip dipped in my queen juice & the bees showed no interest. i did the same thing around my hives with no shown interest.
(https://i.ibb.co/XXHLHGm/bee-queen-soup.jpg) (https://ibb.co/XXHLHGm)
(https://i.ibb.co/zn1S60k/bee-queen-soup-2.jpg) (https://ibb.co/zn1S60k)
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Interesting Rober. So when we get swarmed in the traps, it might be in spite of our effort. An interesting confirmation bias happening here then…
I may have to experiment myself next time I get a caged queen.
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i use pill bottles with holes drilled in them filled with cotton balls with lemon grass oil dripped on them. my swarm traps are built to accommodate 6 deep frames. i use old dark comb combined with the lemon grass oil. if i've recently installed a new queen i'll add the used cage. i have a trap at both of my yards & have caught several swarms in each over the years. as stated i've never seen any interest in the 'tincture'. of course that's just been my experience. a lot of folks do say the tincture works.
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My mentor was a fan of it. That being said I’ve never been a big fan of doing something because that’s the way it has always been done. If data come out that there is a better way, or that what I am currently doing isn’t effective, I am very willing to change.