Marking the Queen

This year, I chose to mark the queen. I opted not to do so last year because I heard it was beneficial for improving my skills in locating her. By marking her, I shift my focus to looking for the mark rather than searching for the queen directly. However, during my class at the butterfly pavilion, the instructor offered a compelling reason to mark the queen. She explained that marking the queen allows you to easily determine if your colony has replaced her. If you suddenly can’t find the marked queen but discover another one, you’ll know she’s been replaced. Therefore, I decided to proceed with marking her in both of my hives this season.

I forgot to bring my small queen marking container from inside the house, so I decided to attempt marking her after I released her from the cage. If I found it difficult to mark her, I would take that as an indication that I wouldn’t mark her again this year. Fortunately, it was quite simple to apply a small dot on the backs of both queens while they roamed around the cage and on my gloves. I opted for a white pen, which corresponds to years ending in 1 and 6.  See the list below for all the other colors and years.  I got my marker from Michaels, having seen many reviews from others who successfully used it for marking their queens.

• White: Years ending in 1 or 6

• Yellow: Years ending in 2 or 7

• Red: Years ending in 3 or 8

• Green: Years ending in 4 or 9

• Blue: Years ending in 0 or 5

Link to Marker:  https://www.michaels.com/product/uni-posca-pc5m-medium-bullet-tip-paint-marker-10582873