Queen Marking

After a while of beekeeping you start to wonder if there is an easier way to find your Queen Bees. After all, it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack, finding one specific bee among hundreds of thousands of bees! Well, I’m here to tell you today that there IS a way to find your queens easier, it’s the process called queen marking.

The first thing you need to do is find and catch your queen. There are many ways to catch her, you can get her with your bare hands, or you can get one of the many queen catching tools.

Once she is caught hold her still and get your paint marker. First you need to prime your marker. Find a piece of wood to test it on, if the paint gushes out onto the wood write with the marker until the pint only comes out exactly where you touch the end to. If you use the marker right away and the paint gushes out onto the queen you’ve just ruined her. Gently dab the back of the queen’s head with the primed marker, then hold her for a minute until the paint dries. If you don’t wait she will smear the paint all over herself. Tip: Oil based pain markers last longer than other types but its just personal preference when it comes to brand.

Each year has a specific color so that you know how old your queen is. The color coding goes like this: a year ending with 1 is white, ending in 2 is yellow, ending in 3 red, ending in 4 green, ending in 5 blue, then it starts over to white through blue again. An easy way to remember is this, Will, You, Raise, Good, Bees. The first letter in this silly sentence is the first letter of the color of the year.

Example: 202-White (Will), 2022-Yellow (You), 2023-Red (Raise), 2024-Green (Good), 2025-Blue (Bees), 2026-White, 2027-Yellow, 2028-Raise, 2029-Green, 2030-Blue.