Question ? Queen Clip ?

[Mikey N.C.]

When going into box early in the year. If Q is laying (10 on 10 deep brood chamber)  in upper 10.  Do you cage her, to go into bottom deep ?

[Perry]

I don't normally bother with clipping her if I am doing a regular inspection. If, on the other hand I am looking to pull frames for a nuc or looking for frames that I might otherwise want, I will often put her in a clip and set her in my chest pocket till all my manipulations are done and then I release her onto the top bars, watch her dive down, and then I pop the lid back on.

[Mikey N.C.]

Thanks Perry,
I was looking Q cells ( swarm)  and she was up top.
Was worried about moving top box over, with her in it.

[riverbee]

mikey,
like perry said, i don't usually put the queen in a clip unless i am doing some hive manipulation and don't want her getting mashed.

when you said you were worried about moving the top box over with her in it, guess i am not sure what you mean?
you are looking for swarm cells on the bottoms of the frames of the top box? and your queen is laying in the top deep?

sorry mikey sometimes my brain cells are the same color as my hair...........

[Mikey N.C.]

Sorry i didn't say, she is laying in top and bottom.

[Mikey N.C.]

And I forgot to mention that .yesterday when going into hive she had 3 fully capped frames in top 10 an 2 fully capped in bottom. And had a lemony smell ? Was that smell ( I've never smelled was nasonov pheromone? ) i didn't have any of my lemon grass oil for bait hives on me?

[Bakersdozen]

A method I use when working a hive is this:  I take the lid and place upside down on the ground.  I put a spare hive body box, empty, on top of the lid.  As I work through frames looking for the queen, etc.  I place the first few frames in the spare hive body box.  If the queen is on there she won't get lost in the grass because of the lid.  Sometimes I move the frame with the queen so I can keep track of her.  I have a queen clip, but I have never used it.   

I have a couple of those metal frame holders that extend from the side of the hive boxes.  I don't use those either.  The queen could fall off into the grass and I would never see her.

[Riverrat]

A method I use when working a hive is this:  I take the lid and place upside down on the ground.  I put a spare hive body box, empty, on top of the lid.  As I work through frames looking for the queen, etc.  I place the first few frames in the spare hive body box.  If the queen is on there she won't get lost in the grass because of the lid.  Sometimes I move the frame with the queen so I can keep track of her.  I have a queen clip, but I have never used it.   

I have a couple of those metal frame holders that extend from the side of the hive boxes.  I don't use those either.  The queen could fall off into the grass and I would never see her.

I am with B13 on this one.  Never used a queen clip.  I pull the first frames from the side then have room to manipulate the hive frames without having to worry about rolling the queen