Color code

[drone1952]

For how long the color code is used and what is in particular the importance of this.

[Michael Bush]

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

[tecumseh]

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.

[rdy-b]

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

[Jim134]

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 :)

[iddee]

http://www.guilfordbeekeepers.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Queen-ID-Colors1.gif

[OzBuzz]

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?

[Hemlock]

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. 

[KD4MOJ]

Hemlock:

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

...DOUG
KD4MOJ

[Hemlock]

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

[tecumseh]

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.

[organicfarmer]

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)