6pcs Queen Bee Catcher/Cage Set, 1x Queen Bee Marker,1x Marking Bottle, 1x Beehive Entrance Gate, 1x Bee Breeding Platform,2X Marking Clips, Beekeeping Tools

Great price and all works well except for the unit to hold and mark the queen. its made to push up and clip into place with detent. detent does not work well and had to trim it off and now I do not have any complants.

Just used it for the first time. Worked perfectly. I don't know why anyone would pay more for the same one from a different supplier, maybe in a different color.There is a small knob attached to the slide on the side, once you have the queen in, you gently slide it up to push her towards the grates at the top. The grates are the same width as a queen excluder so any workers that you scooped up with her can get out but the queen can not. Pause just before the foam plunger is all the way up, wait until she positions herself parallel to the slots with her thorax exposed between and gently push to the top, trapping her in place. The slider mechanism is built so that if she's between the grates it stops positively so you can't crush her but you have to move slowly anyway and only very gentle movement is required- take off your gloves. Make sure her wings aren't caught. She'll be held with her thorax and part of her abdomen sticking slightly through the slot, now you can easily mark her with paint. I left her in that position for 3-4 minutes so the paint could set, then pulled the plunger back, left the gate closed and set it on top of the frames, immediately a lot of workers went through the slots to join her. Left them a few more minutes to be sure the paint was completely dry and smudge proof, then gently pulled the gate open, set it upside down between frames and the queen walked out and down onto the frame, now well marked. Easy.Anyway, if you're somehow hesitant to buy this one instead of the far more expensive one at the beekeeping supply, don't be. It's the same.

Easy enough to use, as advertised. Marked our Queen Bee to make her easier to locate. She is quite good at hiding. The cage worked well to hold and align the Queen for marking. It was difficult to get the other bees away from the queen but this was likely due to my inexperience with the device. The sliding cover made it easy to release the queen back into the hive.

I really like this style of queen catcher. It works great for marking queens, but also just for catching them. I have found that it makes it easier for getting them into the plastic queen cages, too. I catch the queen (be very careful when closing the sliding door so you don't injure the queen's legs). I open a queen cage at the middle hinge and put it over the part of the queen catcher where the sliding door opens. I slowly open the sliding door just enough so the queen can crawl into the queen cage. I use the plunger to force her towards the opening and she will crawl into the queen cage, often with a couple of attendant workers.

I love the product really useful seems huge but is easily handled. My foam was not tall enough to hold my virgin queens down . I noticed a small rigde inside to limit the plunger from going up higher . I gently carved it out with my knife both sides , put it back together and it will now hold the queen steady and still not hurt her . 🐝🙂

I bought this knowing I had to modify the queen holder. It did work after a bit of filing. The paint on my queen did not last very long. Yes it is the same queen. And yes I let it dry long enough. I ended up buying a more quality marker. Still not a bad buy for the price.

The marker was dried up cant use it marker bees

I needed this product to capture and Mark one of my queen Bee’s, it was easy to use and gentle on her! Its one-handed use made it especially easy to get her inside. I would definitely recommend this product to other beekeepers looking to gently capture and mark their queens. I had her captured and marked within thirty seconds and was able to release her back into her hive with no issues after attempts to capture her in a clip cage were unsuccessful