Lesson 36: Finding the Queen

How to spot her, and how to know she's there even when you can't

Every beginner wants to see the queen, and learning to find her is a good habit to develop. But here's the most important point in this lesson: you don't have to see her to know she's fine. Her work is written all over the comb.

The signs of a queenright colony

A colony with a laying queen is called queenright. You can tell a colony is queenright, without ever finding her, if you see:

1. Eggs: tiny grains of rice standing in the cells, one per cell. Eggs hatch in 3 days, so eggs mean a queen has been laying in the last few days (lesson 7).
2. Young larvae: small, pearly-white, C-shaped grubs.
3. A solid brood pattern: capped brood in a solid, oval patch spreading out from the center of the frame (lesson 34).

Eggs, young larvae and a solid pattern = a healthy laying queen. Most experienced beekeepers check for eggs first and only hunt for the queen when they need to (for example, to replace her or to make a split).

Signs that something's wrong (lessons 43–44): - No eggs or young larvae in the brood nest during the active season. - Two or more eggs in one cell, eggs scattered all over the cell instead of one cemented to the base, and a spotty, disorderly pattern, which suggests laying workers (the queen is gone). - Queen cells being built, especially emergency cells toward the middle of the comb (lessons 13 and 37). - A spotty, scattered brood pattern.

What she looks like

• Longer than a worker, with a long, tapering abdomen that often reaches well past her wings (lesson 6).
• Her legs often look longer and she walks with purpose, unlike the bustling workers.
• A mated, laying queen is usually surrounded by a "retinue": a ring of workers facing her and touching her with their antennae. That little circle of heads pointing inward is often the easiest way to spot her.
• A virgin (unmated) queen is slimmer and runs quickly across the comb. She's much harder to find, and workers don't form a retinue around her.
• A marked queen has a spot of paint on her thorax (the middle part of her body), which makes her far easier to spot. Many suppliers sell queens already marked.

How it looks: The queen: longer, with a long abdomen, workers around her.

A marked queen: the paint dot makes her much easier to spot.

A queen from above: notice the length of the abdomen.

Where to look

• She's usually on a brood frame, most often one with eggs and young larvae, since that's where she's been laying.
• Start with the frames next to the one with the newest eggs.
• Look at each frame as soon as you lift it, before the bees move around. Scan the face of the comb and along the edges and bottom bar.
• Look at the frame you just took out, and at the next frame still in the box. She sometimes walks onto the side of the neighboring frame or the box wall.
• Keep the smoke light. Heavy smoke sends bees, and the queen, running across the combs.

Marking a queen

Once you've found her, marking her saves hours later. You can mark a queen yourself with a queen-marking pen (enamel paint) and a marking cage or by gently holding her by the thorax.

• Put a small dot of paint on the top of her thorax only. Keep paint away from her eyes, antennae, wings and abdomen.
• Let the paint dry for about five minutes in a cage before returning her, so workers don't clean it off.
• Queens only sting other queens, so she won't sting you.
• Color by year. Many beekeepers follow a color code so you can tell a queen's age at a glance:

• Write it down: the date, where the queen came from and the color (lesson 41). If you later find an unmarked queen in that hive, the colony has replaced her.

What to remember

• You don't have to see the queen. Eggs (one per cell), young larvae and a solid brood pattern mean she's there and laying.
• She's longer, with a long abdomen; a retinue of workers faces her; a paint dot makes her easy to find.
• Look on brood frames with eggs, quickly, with light smoke.
• Mark her (thorax only) and record her color and date.

Quick check

1. You can't find the queen, but you see eggs standing one to a cell and young larvae. Is she there?
2. What's a retinue, and how does it help?
3. You find an unmarked queen in a hive where you'd marked the queen last year. What happened?

Adapted from: UF/IFAS Extension, Welcome to the Apiary! (4H446) and European Honey Bee (IN1005); Penn State Extension, An Introduction to Queen Honey Bee Development (Anton & Grozinger, updated 2025); Purdue Extension, Advanced Beekeeping (4-H-1059-W), "Marking Queens"; University of Arkansas, Complete Beekeeping Short Course, Part 4; UGA Bee Program, Getting Started: Installing Packaged Bees.

Photos: queen in the hive, Levi Asay, CC BY-SA 3.0 · queen from above, USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab, CC BY 2.0 (both via Wikimedia Commons) · marked queen, Fuzzy Gerdes, CC BY 2.0 (via Flickr).

Adapted from university Extension sources. Experienced Georgia beekeepers are reviewing these lessons. See something that doesn't match your experience? Tell us.