A guide to queen colors: why do we even mark them?
"Will you raise good bees?" White, Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue. For the English speaking beekeepers that is a useful mnemonic when starting out. But keeping track of which year is which color is something I could never nail down, so I made this simple page.
The reason to mark queens is mostly twofold: by adhering to this color-year scheme you can easily determine the age of a queen. They rarely live beyond five years, so by spotting a blue marked queen you can infer she was born one year ago (if the year is 2026). The second reason is to easily spot her on the comb, for example when you wish to do a split or re-queen.
A good mark sits squarely on the back, the thorax, and leaves no paint on the other parts of the queen. You can hover the image on the left here, which also shows how breeders sometimes mark their queens with numbers, not just a dot. It might be a good idea to practice on your drones first, both catching them in the marking cage, and actually marking them to get a feel for how your pens work. Ideally you don't touch the marker against a queen more than once.
Be careful! When marking queens, always dab the pen or marker against your hand first. Sometimes a drop of paint can form at the tip, and run down the queen's body covering her wings, legs, or eyes. This can make the bees believe she is damaged, and lead to a supersedure. A heartbreaking mistake when you know you have a good queen, or paid for one.
Use a marking cage, or tube, or clip, of some design to gently hold her. If you're brave you can look up how to pick her up and hold her by her wings... I'm still practicing how to pick them up on my poor drones.
Of course you can mark in any color you like, for example a bright neon pink can be a practical choice. Others use the same color all the time, or have their own system due to colorblindness. The point I'm making is that you do not need to adhere to any hard rules like this. Use the system if it suits you, if not, make your own. I even know a beekeeper who marks her queens with sparkly nail polish!
The idea of marking queens may originate with Karl von Frisch (20 November 1886 – 12 June 1982). He was a German-Austrian ethologist credited with deciphering the bee's waggle dance. As part of his research in the 1910's and 1920's he started marking individual bees to keep track of their movement over the comb. This may be the inspiration for beekeepers, who some time after this began marking their queens.