Queen Bee Colors By Year

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. Queen bee marking has come a long way since its inception, with early methods giving way to more standardized systems. Over the years, beekeepers have adopted various color codes to identify their queens, but these codes haven't always been consistent.

In this article, we'll take you on a journey through the evolution of queen bee marking color codes by year, highlighting key changes and. A beekeeper needs to know how queens are labeled. The marking of queen bees in color by year will help the beekeeper not to get caught by fraudsters, who often mark queen bees as they please, or sell old queen bees together with bee packages instead of the declared young queen bees.

In 2025, the color for queen bees will be blue. The colors represent birth year, with white for years ending in 1 or 6, yellow for years ending in 2 or 7, red for years ending in 3 or 8, and green for years ending in 0. The international color code for marking queen bees is a five-year rotating system based on the last digit of the year.

The sequence is White for years ending in 1 or 6, Yellow for 2 or 7, Red for 3 or 8, Green for 4 or 9, and Blue for 5 or 0. One thing a beekeeper needs to know how to do well, is mark a Queen bee. There are many different ways a beekeeper can do this, but it all comes down to knowing the proper color for that year, having the best marking tools that are non-toxic and still highly pigmented, and then getting that colorful dot on the back of your Queen gently.

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, we are here to share. By marking new born queens with a specific color to each calendar year, beekeepers, wherever they are in the world, can identify the age of the queen bee by the color of her mark. As queen bees very rarely live more than 3-4 years, 5 colors are all that is needed.

The international queen bee color code for a given year is determined by the last digit: White (1, 6), Yellow (2, 7), Red (3, 8), Green (4, 9), and Blue (5, 0). This system allows beekeepers to instantly know the age of their queen. Trying to remember which color to use this year? This simple guide breaks down the five-year rotation and why it's a critical tool for successful hive management.

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.

Details of how to mark your queens, or spot the age of a queen bee in your colony or swarm.