Queen Marking Paint

01 · THE COLOUR CODE

You don't pick the colour: the year does

The shade follows the last digit of the year and repeats every five: white for years ending in 1 and 6, yellow for 2 and 7, red for 3 and 8, green for 4 and 9, blue for 5 and 0. So 2026 is white, 2027 yellow, 2028 red, 2029 green and 2030 blue. It is an international code, so a queen bought in France or Germany reads the same. And it tells you more than her age: if you open up and find an unmarked queen, or one marked in another colour, the colony has requeened itself and you never noticed.

02 · HOW TO MARK

Hold her still first, paint her second

The applicator is a flat brush housed in the cap, exactly like a nail varnish. Find the frame the queen is on, hold her still with a marking cage —plunger, spiked or the cylinder type that presses onto the comb— and give her one dry dab on the thorax, never on the head or the abdomen. Let it dry for a few seconds before releasing her. If this is your first time, practise on drones: they mark the same way and nothing is lost if it comes out crooked. And if the varnish thickens over time, a few drops of acetone-based solvent bring it back.

03 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Two things that catch people out. You buy one bottle in one colour: the photo shows all five so you can see the range, but you choose one, and if you want them all you have to add five. And it is a brush, not a pen: anyone who prefers a felt tip wants the POSCA marker, not this. Bear in mind too that the varnish alone is not enough — you need a cage to hold the queen while it dries.