Identifying the Queen and Reading Brood Patterns

Finding the queen is the part of beekeeping that beginners find most intimidating, and it is almost entirely a matter of knowing what you are looking at rather than having sharp eyes. The queen is not hidden. She is distinctive, and once you have seen a few you will spot her at a glance.

How to find the queen

Do not search for a bee. Search for a shape, a movement and a ring of attendants.

• Longer abdomen: the queen's abdomen extends well past her wing tips. Workers' wings reach the end of the abdomen; hers do not.
• Legs and stance: her legs are longer and splayed, so she walks with a distinctly different gait — a slightly awkward, purposeful stride.
• The retinue: she is almost never alone. A small cluster of workers facing her, grooming and feeding, is the most reliable cue of all.
• Where to look: she is usually on a frame with fresh eggs and young larvae, not on outer stores frames.
• Movement: she moves more deliberately than workers and rarely runs.

If you cannot find her, do not keep pulling frames apart. Look for eggs instead. Fresh eggs prove a laying queen within the last three days, which answers the question you actually had.

Marking, and why it pays

A marked queen turns a ten-minute search into a two-second glance. The international colour code cycles on the last digit of the year, so a single dot tells you her age.

Mark her on the thorax, between the wing bases, and let the paint dry for a minute before release. Practise the whole sequence on drones first — they are the same size, they cannot sting, and nobody minds.

Reading the brood pattern

The brood pattern is the colony's report card. It is produced by thousands of individual decisions and it cannot lie. Learn to read it and you will diagnose most queen problems without ever finding her.

A good pattern

A solid, compact, oval area of brood with very few empty cells. Capped brood in the centre, larvae and eggs in concentric rings outward. This is what a healthy, well-mated queen on good comb produces.

A poor pattern

Scattered brood with many skipped cells, a "shotgun" appearance. It has several possible causes and they are worth distinguishing.

• An old or failing queen: patchy pattern that worsens over successive inspections.
• A poorly mated queen: she runs out of sperm and lays only drones. Look for drone brood in worker cells.
• Inbreeding: diploid drones are removed by workers, leaving gaps.
• Disease: European foulbrood and chalkbrood both produce scattered, discoloured brood.
• Cold or chilled brood: damage at the edges of the nest after a cold snap.

Recognising brood stages

Being able to tell eggs, larvae and capped brood apart at a glance lets you date the queen's activity precisely.

The presence of eggs tells you the queen was laying within three days. That is the single most useful diagnostic in beekeeping, and it is why experienced beekeepers look for eggs rather than queens.

When to replace a queen

Requeening is disruptive and expensive, so the threshold should be evidence-based rather than a feeling.

• Persistently poor brood pattern across three or more inspections, with no disease present.
• A drone-laying queen: drone brood in worker cells, often in a scattered pattern.
• Aggressive colony temperament that does not improve with handling and good conditions.
• Low productivity compared with sister colonies on the same forage.
• Age: many beekeepers requeen every one to two years as a matter of policy, particularly where mite pressure is high.