Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS => Topic started by: drone1952 on August 24, 2010, 04:14:31 am

Title: Color code
Post by: drone1952 on August 24, 2010, 04:14:31 am
For how long the color code is used and what is in particular the importance of this.
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: Michael Bush on August 24, 2010, 04:57:18 am
I don't know when the international standard was arrived at.  The importance is that at a glance you know the age of the queen.

http://bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm#colors (http://bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm#colors)
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: tecumseh on August 25, 2010, 09:10:50 am
what year establish... well I don't know.

and if your bees are highly hygienic and the paint color happens to be wrong shade then after the girls remove the little dot it tells you very little.
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: rdy-b on August 28, 2010, 02:26:34 am
For how long the color code is used and what is in particular the importance of this.
used 12 months then color changes---importance is-everybody is on the same calendar-RDY-B
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: Jim134 on August 28, 2010, 08:02:40 am
For how long the color code is used and what is in particular the importance of this.


   For Jan 1 to Dec 31   The importance of this so you can tell the age of the  queen If color is missing did the bees re-queen them self's


    BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: iddee on August 28, 2010, 11:07:23 pm
http://www.guilfordbeekeepers.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Queen-ID-Colors1.gif (http://www.guilfordbeekeepers.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Queen-ID-Colors1.gif)
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: OzBuzz on August 31, 2010, 02:24:50 am
I spoke to a beek the other week who suggested using those little tins of hobby paint that people use to paint model planes - he said cut the pointy end off a 3" nail and dip this in the paint slightly and then dab it on the queen... has anyone used this technique over the commercially available marking pens? Also, who has used the numbered dots? I'd be interested in those for the purposes of record keeping - are they easy to use?
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: Hemlock on October 19, 2010, 12:09:36 pm
When I went to requeen earlier this year i found an Unmarked queen instead of the Marked one.  Not only does this tell me the colony requeened itself, and about when,  but that they went through TWO requeenings this year (including mine).  Which explains to me why that colony is slightly behind the others in production.  Otherwise i might be scratching my head trying to figure it out. 
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: KD4MOJ on October 20, 2010, 08:35:02 am
Hemlock:

  Maybe they just had a thing about the color blue!  :-D

...DOUG
KD4MOJ

Title: Re: Color code
Post by: Hemlock on October 20, 2010, 12:27:36 pm
Doug,

But it matched so well with the Paisley wallpaper in the honey supers!  I guess I'll need to take a Feng-shui class now... :-D
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: tecumseh on October 21, 2010, 09:30:19 am
snip..
The importance of this so you can tell the age of the  queen If color is missing did the bees re-queen them self's

tecumseh:
maybe yes and maybe no.  just casually it appears to me the paint used to mark queens last about one year max.  some colors (red for example) seem not to last longer than 30 days.
Title: Re: Color code
Post by: organicfarmer on January 30, 2011, 11:52:17 pm
there is a little mnemotechnic to remember color code of the queens
Wouldn't You Raise Great Bees?
White(1 &6), Yellow(2&7), Red (3&8), Green (4&9), Blue (5&0)