Whilst the smartphone is frowned upon by many photographers, it does help a great deal when taking pictures of frames of bees when waring a bee suit and nitrile gloves. I just place the frame horizontally on top of the brood box and frames. then using my nitrile gloves find the camera, press and hold and take the picture. I have recently learnt that the side buttons on an iphone can be used to take pictures. Tthis proved useful recently when the gloves were hindering me taking pictures in the usual way. Hold the button on the right to tell siri you want to take a photo. Then use either of the buttons on the left to take the picture.

marking the queen makes her much easier to spot on a busy frame of bees

attendant bees can be seen looking after the queen

the colour the queen is marked with changes each year.