It takes a little patience and practice to find the queen among many thousands of bees. However, a coloured dot on the royal shoulder makes finding the royal mother much easier.

By the way, the colour gives information about the year of birth and thus about the age of the queen.

The annual colour for 2017 is yellow. In order to fix the queen for gluing on the colour plate, you can use a special tool in which she is gently pressed into the tapered roof of the cylinder by a soft foam stamp.

However, experienced beekeepers hold the queen between their fingers when marking her. The garden beekeeper still has to practice this...