Marked Queen Bee Colors For This Year This is the color guide for marking bees. They go by the year the queen was born. For example, queens born in either 2013 or 2018 would be marked with a red dot.
This color guide helps beekeepers ensure they are dealing with the same queen over time by adhering to a standardized color scheme. The color guide for marking bees is based on the year the queen was born, with five traditional colors used: white, yellow, red, green, and blue. This system helps beekeepers ensure they are dealing with the same queen over time by adhering to a standardized color scheme.
Queens born in years ending with 1 and 6 use a white posca pen, while years ending with 2 and 7 use a yellow posca pen. Bee queens are marked with a specific colour according to their year of birth. This helps beekeepers to know exactly how old the queen is.
Learn how queen bee marking color codes have evolved over the years, from early methods to standardized systems, and discover best practices for accurate marking. Years ending in 4 or 9: green It is as simple as that, and it is a perfect way of visual record keeping. And the way it works, is if the Queen hatches during that year, that is the color you mark her with, whether you mark her that year or in the following spring.
The color refers to the year the Queen hatched in. Queen Bee Marking Pens or Markers. Queen bee marking follows a standardized color-coding system based on the last digit of the year, designed to help beekeepers track the age of queens efficiently.
The colors rotate in a five-year cycle, with each color representing two possible year endings. This system ensures consistency across beekeeping communities and simplifies record. The queen fashionably models the honey-bee queen colours.
If you mark your queens, you should follow the international queen-colour code: White in 2016 and 2021, Yellow in 2017 and 2022, etc. Queen bee marking colors are chosen alphabetically, with the most common being blue for 2025. The color guide goes by the year the queen was born, with the most common color being red for queens born in 2013 or 2018.
For example, queens born in 2013 or 2018 would be marked with a red color. Red - years ending to 3 or 8 Green - years ending to 4 or 9 Blue - years ending to 5 or 0. Being the busy beekeepers we are, we use little phrases or poems to remember the order of the colours, for example, in English we use W hy Y ou R ear G ood B ees as a mnemonic.
What are the phrases you use to remember the colour order? Queen bee marking follows a standardized color code system based on the year's last digit, using five distinct colors in a repeating cycle. This system helps beekeepers quickly identify a queen's age and track her performance, which is vital for hive management.