This may sound stupid, but I need tips on finding the queen!

[schawee]

just updated my eagle eye glasses :-D   when i look for a  queen i look at the frame of bees ,not at every bee on that frame. alot of times she will just stand out.
schawee

[Ben Framed]

This may sound stupid, but I need tips on finding the queen!

Not stupid at all. Most of us have that problem when first starting out. Even after getting pretty good at, I still have a head banger from time to time and once in a while. lol 

Phillip

[NigelP]

An good way of finding elusive queens requires a second brood box a queen excluder  and 24 hours.
Into an empty brood box place 2 frames (without brood if possible) together in the middle. Shake the bees off all the other frame into this brood box and place a queen excluder over this and put brood box plus beeless frames on top.
Go back next day and bees will have migrated back into top box and queen will now be confined onto 1 of 2 frames making it much easier to find her.

A variation on this is to sieve bees through a queen excluder. Need 2 empty boxes with a queen excluder between them. Shake all bees into top box, once you have done this take top box and queen excluder and place back over the beeless brood frames. Within a few hours all the bees will have migrated back to bottom box leaving queen isolated on top of the excluder.

Even if you still can't find the queen at least you know where she has to be so you can removed/discard those bees/frames etc as required.

[Mamm7215]

Practice, basically.  Especially with Nucs.  They're smaller and usually easier to find the queen.  As far as the other tips, they're all good...sometimes.  Bees on the frame move calmer-sometimes.  She's likely on the frame with the freshest eggs-sometimes.  She's always below the excluder-mostly.  So all the tips are good and helpful but not written in stone.  Just wait until you try to find her on an inspection but can't so you give up, put the hive back together and go into the house for a coffee and she's on your shoulder.  I almost always find my queens now.  Almost. :)

[Oldbeavo]

As you start pull frame 2, check for queen and put aside, then pull frame 7 in an 8 or 9 in a 10 frame.
This gives you 2 shafts of light that hopefully traps the queen on the middle frames.
As you take out frame 3 don't look it immediately, look at the face of frame 4 to see if she is running down the frame. if no then check frame 3 and put it aside. And so on.
Still no queen, check the outside frames and put aside. Most of the time we have the queen by now.
Still no queen look in the box to see if she is running around the walls. Alot of the time she is in a corner or along a join.
Still no queen then check every frame as you put it back.

Still no queen, shut up the hive and come back tomorrow. If this is not an option we will shake all the bees onto a surface in front of the hive to find her, last resort.

[Michael Bush]

https://bushfarms.com/beesqueenspotting.htm

[Ben Framed]

TheHoneyPump put out an excellent video and posted it here three years ago. I will repost for the benifit of anyone who might be interested or need help. 

Phillip

Spot the queen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSe3-8lIUgg