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

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.

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.

No different in the quality or the construction!!!!! the action of shutting the gate is still as smooth if not smoother than the MANN lake version but the marking pen could be better thats why the 4

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 . 🐝🙂

Product is garbage. Does not slide up far enough to hold the queen against the grate so you can mark her. Even if it DID work, the paint marker is completely useless, I shook that thing for an hour and pressed it 1,000 times and I could only get a tiny amount of very watery paint out of it, was unable to mark the queen.

It worked awsome. This was my first time ever marking a queen honey bee. It was so easy to operate and function and mark queen. Lowered floor afterwards and let in dry for 5 minutes and then released her back into hive.👍

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.

My husband is a beekeeper and needed this to catch his queen. It works as described. He is happy with this purchase.