Beekeeping Basics: How to Locate Your Queen

However, queen spotting is a vital skill for any beekeeper, and one that develops with practice. During an inspection, you need to be able to tell if she’s in the hive, laying effectively, and if she might need to be replaced (or has already been replaced by her offspring). You need to know what you are looking for, and there are a couple of tricks that make this job easier.

A queen bee has a longer abdomen, which is the largest body part of the bee with horizontal striping. She doesn’t have the same fuzzy thorax (midsection) that the worker bees do, and those two features are likely the most immediately noticeable when inspecting. She has longer legs than her surrounding workers, and while worker wings cover their entire bodies, her wings are comparatively shorter. You can sometimes spot her standing over empty cells, laying eggs and surrounded by a ring of worker bees, dutifully watching her. It also makes sense to look for her on brood frames, because she spends most of her life laying eggs there.

Something that I learned from other beekeepers is how to safely mark your queen, which serves multiple purposes. For this, you will need a queen catcher, of which there are many varieties, and specific paint pens that will not harm her. In using a paint pen, it’s a great idea to prime the pen first by blotting it with a paper towel, so that you do not use too much paint. Another helpful tip is to practice grabbing and dotting drones, because they are larger, slower, and do not sting, before trying it on your one-and-only laying lady.