The way to Safely Mark a Queen Bee

The way to safely mark a queen bee in order that you know the way previous she is and to extra simply establish her throughout periodic hive wellness checks.

My beehive journey continues following the requeening of my beehive and the premature retirement of her predecessor, Aurora.

It was time to mark the brand new queen, which I aptly named Scarlett. You will see out why beneath!

There are a few main advantages to taking the time to mark the queen of a bee colony, notably for a brand new beekeeper like me nonetheless studying the ropes!

Marked Queens Are Simpler to Discover

First, marking the queen makes it a lot simpler to search out her throughout common beehive checks.

Whenever you take away a panel out of your beehive to verify for wholesome ranges of nectar, pollen and larva, discovering the queen is usually a problem with actually hundreds of bees transferring round!

Whereas the queen is bigger than the employee bees and drones, marking her with a tiny dot on the dorsal facet of her higher stomach makes it a a lot simpler course of!

Coloration Signifies Queen Bee’s Age

Secondly, if in case you have a number of beehives (I intend to develop my colonies past simply the one I’ve now), it is very important mark the queens so you know the way previous each is.

Queen bees usually dwell for about 2-3 years.

Thus, the colour of the queen’s marking makes it straightforward to determine how previous she is and what the timeframe is likely to be for her continued productiveness inside the bee colony.

Which Coloration to Use? Queen Bee Coloration Marking Information

For instance, this 12 months…2023…is a purple 12 months for queen bees. Therefore, the title of my new queen…Scarlett!

Which means that queens born throughout this 12 months ought to be marked with a purple dot.

It is rather essential to ONLY use unhazardous paint specifically designed for bees for marking the queen.

By no means ever use nail polish or a sharpie which might be toxic to her.

Here’s a brand of nontoxic bee pens to make use of that’s innocent to her and the hive.

Along with nontoxic queen marking pens, you will want a queen marking tool to soundly comprise her throughout the course of.

In abstract, the 12 months a queen bee is born determines what colour she is marked with.

• White: Queens born in years that finish with 1 and 6 are marked with a white dot.
• Yellow: Queens born in years that finish with 2 and seven are marked with a yellow dot.
• Purple: Queens born in years that finish with 3 and eight are marked with a purple dot.
• Inexperienced: Queens born in years that finish with 4 and 9 are marked with a inexperienced dot.
• Blue: Queens born in years that finish in 0 and 5 are marked with a blue dot.

The way to Mark the Queen Bee

After you have your queen marking cage and unhazardous marking pens, you’re prepared to put a dot in your queen bee!

Under is a video of the three-step course of that Beekeeper John of Gem Apiaries, taught me for secure and easy marking of the queen in my beehive.

• Gently seize the queen from a beehive body within the queen marking tool.
• Slowly cut back the quantity of house that the queen has to maneuver round.
• As soon as the queen is accessible by way of the openings on the highest of the marking device, use the suitable colour of nontoxic bee pen to put a dot on her higher stomach (dorsal facet).

See the method unfold within the quick video beneath!