Red Posca Water Based Paint Pen Marker for Marking Queen Bees Safely with a Red Dot, Non Toxic, 1 Marker

Some people have expressed some reservations about using these pens for marking queens, but I believe any issues that people run into have more to do with not allowing enough time for the paint dot to dry on the queen before returning her to her attendants than on the quality of the pen/paint. If you don't allow about 5 mins for drying, then the attendants can begin to clean off the paint before it has a chance to set.I like to cage the queen in a marking chamber, push her up gently against the excluder gate, mark her with a dot, lower the plunger back down to allow her to move freely, and let her chill in there for 5 mins (make sure she's in the shade and I like to lay her down on top of the frames to keep the hive calm). Another very important tip for using paint pens is to make sure to dab the pen a few times to load it and then knock off the initial glob on something other than the queen first. You don't want the giant splat of ink to land on the queen because that can easily get on her wings, eyes, or legs, which is certainly not optimal.In the pictures I attached, you can see the dot on the queen looks just as good on Day 1 as it does several months later. The dots are great to be able to spot the queen, however you should definitely be experienced at finding queens without dots before you rely on it as a crutch. I mostly use the dots to track whether my queen is still the one the hive started out with, or if she has been superceded or swarmed. If a queen doesn't have dot in the hive that had a marked queen, I can usually assume something happened to the original queen.

Been using these for years. They work well.

The review asks about sheerness in the query but sheerness isn't what a beekeeper wants. I need to see that pretty girl in the hive. This pen is what you want!

As expected. Im a bee keeper. I used it to mark my queen. I hate the fact that I spent $7 bucks for a dot, but the dot quality is very nice.

Brought this to Mark our queen bees its works well easy to use.

Great pen works good

I love these markers and own many in different sizes and colors. One thing to consider is that you cannot brush on a topcoat atop this paint. It liquifies and smears. My only success has been spraying very thin, successive coats until it's entirely covered (Polycyclic, etc).

This pen leaks and drips EVERYWHERE! Be VERY CAREFUL when marking your queen or you will drench her in ink! I thought it was just after the first use and the ink would disperse, but even after I shook it, any pump of the tip and ink shoots out in a big mess! Do not recommend.