If you buy a marked queen from a breeder this Spring, the mark will probably be red.
Queen breeders generally follow a standard rotation of colors when marking queens.
The idea is to have more colors than the number of years a queen can live.
There are 5 colors in the rotation and queens rarely live past their 3rd year.
Thus you can tell the age of the queen by the color of her mark. Here’s the scheme.
Year ending in:
0 or 5 - Blue
1 or 6 - White
2 or 7 - Yellow
3 or 8 - Red
4 or 9 - Green
If your marked queen suddenly has no mark, she was probably replaced by the
bees while you weren’t looking.
Marking usually costs a dollar or less, and is well worth the small change.
If you prefer, you can mark your own queens.
Use a quick drying lacquer and a small brush, being very careful to handle the
queen gently.
Practice on older queens scheduled for replacement before you try it on your
prized new $12 queen.
