Queens & rearing
The queen is the heart of a colony. A healthy, well-mated queen lays a steady pattern of eggs, fills the brood nest with bees, and produces the pheromones that keep the colony calm and cohesive. Most colony problems trace back, in one way or another, to her. Learning to read the queen, replace her when needed, and eventually raise your own is one of the most rewarding parts of beekeeping.
This page introduces the queen's role, how to spot a failing or lost queen, how to requeen, and a gentle on-ramp to raising queens yourself.
:::tip Record everything in the app Track each queen's origin, age, marking colour and notes on the Queens page. An accurate record of when a queen was introduced is the single most useful thing for judging her performance later. :::
What the queen does
A laying queen is usually the only fertile female in the hive. Her main jobs are:
- Laying eggs — up to 1,500–2,000 a day at the spring peak, in a tight, even pattern across the comb.
- Producing pheromones — chemical signals (notably queen mandibular pheromone) that suppress worker ovaries, signal her presence, and hold the colony together.
A queen typically lays well for one to two years, after which her egg-laying and pheromone output decline. Many beekeepers requeen every one or two years to keep colonies strong and reduce the swarming urge.
Signs of a failing or lost queen
Bees tell you about their queen long before you find her. Watch for these patterns during routine inspections.
| Sign | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| Spotty, patchy brood pattern | Ageing or failing queen, or disease |
| Lots of drone brood in worker cells (raised "bullet" caps) | Drone-laying queen or laying workers |
| Multiple eggs per cell, eggs on cell walls | Laying workers (often a sign the colony has been queenless a while) |
| No eggs or young larvae, falling population | Possible queenlessness |
| A "roar" or restless, agitated colony | Recently lost queen |
| Queen cells on the comb face | Supersedure (colony is replacing her) |
:::caution Confirm before you act A brief gap in laying can be normal — for example, just after a swarm, or while a new queen is getting mated. Before deciding a colony is queenless, look for eggs and very young larvae, and consider checking again in a few days. :::
The clearest evidence of a queen is eggs, not the queen herself. One egg, standing upright at the bottom of a cell, means she was laying within the last three days. You do not always need to find her.
Requeening
Requeening means replacing the colony's queen — because she is failing, the colony is bad-tempered or unproductive, or simply on a planned schedule.
- Source a queen. Buy a mated queen from a reputable breeder, or raise your own (see below). Note her breeding and marking colour when she arrives.
- Remove the old queen. The colony must be queenless before you introduce a new one. Find and remove (or replace) the old queen first.
- Wait a few hours. Letting the colony sense its queenlessness improves acceptance.
- Introduce in a cage. Most queens come in a small cage with a candy plug. Place it between brood frames. The workers eat through the candy over a few days, releasing her gradually so they accept her scent.
- Check acceptance. After about a week, confirm she is laying. Avoid disturbing the colony in the meantime — heavy-handed inspections cause rejection.
:::note Introduction is the risky part Colonies sometimes reject a new queen, especially if they already have queen cells, laying workers, or were queenless for a long time. Remove any queen cells before introducing, and be patient. :::
An introduction to queen rearing
Raising your own queens lets you propagate your best colonies, requeen cheaply, and make increase. There is a method for every level.
Simple, beginner-friendly methods
You do not need to graft to raise good queens.
- Walk-away split. Split a strong, healthy colony so that one half has eggs and young larvae but no queen. The bees raise an emergency queen from a young larva. Easy, but you have little control over which larva they choose.
- The Miller / cut-comb method. Give a queenless colony a frame of young larvae with the comb edge trimmed into a zig-zag, encouraging cells along the exposed edge that are easy to cut out and move.
- On-the-comb methods (e.g. Hopkins). Lay a frame of young larvae flat above a strong queenless colony; they raise cells downward from selected larvae.
The golden rule of all methods: queens are raised from very young larvae (up to about 24–36 hours old). Younger is better — older larvae make poorer queens.
Grafting — the advanced path
Grafting is the commercial standard and gives the most control. You transfer day-old larvae from a chosen breeder queen into artificial cell cups with a fine grafting tool, then give them to a strong, well-fed "cell builder" colony to raise into queen cells. It takes a steady hand and good eyesight, but rewards practice. Tackle it once you are comfortable spotting eggs and judging larval age.
Timing and mating
A queen develops fast — roughly 16 days from egg to emergence. After emerging:
- She matures for several days, then takes one or more mating flights, mating with many drones high in the air at drone congregation areas.
- She begins laying about a week or so after mating, weather permitting.
- Cold, wet or windy spells delay mating; a queen that fails to mate within a few weeks usually becomes a drone-layer and should be replaced.
You cannot control where open-mated queens mate. For specific traits, beekeepers use isolated mating apiaries or instrumental insemination — both advanced topics.
Marking the year colour
Mark new queens so you always know their age and can find them faster. The international colour scheme assigns a colour to each year based on its last digit:
| Year ends in | Colour |
|---|---|
| 1 or 6 | White |
| 2 or 7 | Yellow |
| 3 or 8 | Red |
| 4 or 9 | Green |
| 5 or 0 | Blue |
So a queen raised in 2026 is marked white. Apply a tiny dot of queen-marking paint to the top of her thorax, hold her gently or use a marking cage, and let it dry before releasing her. For the full reference and a handy mnemonic, see Queen marking colours.
When you mark a queen, record her marking colour in the app on the Queens page. Openbeehive sets the expected colour from the year automatically, so you can confirm at a glance whether a queen is the age you think she is.
Where to go next
- Learn the broader season in The beekeeping year.
- Understand the impulse to make new queens in Swarming.
- See how colonies are organised in The colony.