The international color code
The marking color is set by the last digit of the year. There are five colors, and they cycle in the same order every five years.
| Color | Years ending in |
|---|---|
| White | 1 or 6 |
| Yellow | 2 or 7 |
| Red | 3 or 8 |
| Green | 4 or 9 |
| Blue | 5 or 0 |
So 2025 queens are blue, 2026 queens are white, and 2027 queens will be yellow. If you ever forget, the tool above will give you the color for any year.
The mnemonic everyone uses
The color order is white, yellow, red, green, blue. The classic way to remember it is the phrase:
Will You Raise Good Bees?
The first letter of each word matches the first letter of each color, in order. It sounds silly, but it sticks, and it is faster than looking up a chart in the bee yard.
Why the colors repeat every five years
Five colors only cover five years before they start over, which sounds like a problem until you remember how long queens actually last. Most queens are replaced within two to three years, and very few make it past five. By the time a color comes back around, any queen of that original year is almost certainly long gone, so there is no real confusion in practice.
How to mark a queen
You can buy queens already marked, but it is a good skill to have. Here is the basic process.
- Find the queen and gently catch her, either by hand or with a marking cage or marking tube.
- Hold or trap her so the top of her thorax is exposed and she cannot move much.
- Put one small dot of water-based paint on the thorax, the plate between her wings. Keep it off her head, eyes, wings and abdomen.
- Let the paint dry for thirty to sixty seconds.
- Release her gently onto a frame and watch that the workers accept her back normally.
A few things make this much less stressful. Practice on drones first, since they cannot sting and it does not matter if you mess up. Use a proper water-based paint pen, not a random marker. And use less paint than you think you need. A big blob can gum up her body and do more harm than a tidy dot.
Do you have to use the official color?
No. The code is a convention, not a law. If you only have a couple of hives, you can mark every queen the same color just to find her more easily, and that is completely fine.
The reason to follow the code is information. A correct color tells you, and anyone else, the year the queen was introduced without checking any records. That matters more as you scale up or if you sell queens. It also helps you catch a quiet supersedure: if you marked your queen white and you later find an unmarked queen, the colony has replaced her on its own.
When to mark your queen
The easiest time is when you install a new queen or right after you confirm a new queen is laying well. She is already the center of attention, you know exactly how old she is, and you can record the year with the correct color from the start.
If you are nervous about handling her, there is no harm in waiting for a calm, warm day when the colony is relaxed and most foragers are out. Avoid marking a brand new virgin queen before she has mated and settled in, since that is when handling stress is most likely to cause problems.