Marking the Queen
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Marking is done with a solvent-free marker pen or with a glued-on opalith disc on the thorax.
Marking is done with a solvent-free marker pen or with a glued-on opalith disc on the thorax. The color follows an international five-year cycle based on the last digit of the year: white for 1 and 6, yellow for 2 and 7, red for 3 and 8, green for 4 and 9, blue for 5 and 0. Five colors because a queen can live up to five years.
The benefit is practical: the queen is found faster, the inspection takes less time, her age is clear at a glance, and a silent supersedure is immediately obvious when an unmarked queen suddenly appears. The risk is losing the queen while catching and marking her; a marking tube or catching cage keeps her calm.
The marking kit should therefore be taken to the apiary at every inspection, and unmarked queens should be marked straight away. Later they are often hard to find again. She is easiest to find in small colonies, in spring, during the day with lively flight activity, and usually on a comb with young open brood.