How to Find Your Queen

Knowing how to look for and spot your queen is something a lot of beginner beekeepers struggle with. In today's video I show you how to methodically scan each frame to assist in finding your queen. In this ongoing series of video's for the beginner beekeeper I take a weekly look at the newly housed nucleus colony that we placed into it's full sized hive in our allotment apiary and spot the queen on the very first frame. The bees are building the colony nicely and we will soon be looking at adding a queen excluder and super. We may even get a small crop of honey from them this season.
The frame I want to move out of the brood box is moved outwards another frame so it is now on the outside of the brood box where I can remove and replace it.
In this series of video we aim to help the beginner beekeeper by setting up an apiary from the start of the 2017 season and establishing a new bee hive by selecting a nucleus colony as if we had purchased it and following it's progress through the entire season.
Week by week we will show you all you need to know about making your first season in beekeeping as simple and as straightforward as possible.
Check out the playlist for all the previous videos.
The hive tool I am using in this video was supplied to me by Bee Equipment the UK based Beekeeping Equipment Suppliers.
Check out their website at bee-equipment....
We can only produce our regular video with the help and support of many people. You too can help us continue to provide quality beekeeping videos by becoming a Patron.
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Looking for a great first book for beekeeping? Check out two of my favourites below:
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UK:
Try The Best Selling Beekeeping Book Ever!
Guide to Bees and Honey by Ted Hooper
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The Honeybee, Around and About by Celia Davis
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USA: The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum
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Or Try The Best Selling Beekeeping Book Ever!
Guide to Bees and Honey by Ted Hooper
Click here for Link: amzn.to/2nqkdzg
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[@joewalter4]

Thanks Stewart me and my wee boy beginner beekeepers next year Edinburgh Scotland.

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Joe and son! Good luck with your beekeeping next season. Stewart

[@rsignals]

Thanks Stewart - another excellent video pitched at exactly the right level. Will you continue to feed to assist in drawing of new comb when you add the QE and Super?

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Peter, Thanks for commenting. Once the bees have fully drawn the brood frames I will cease feeding. I am lucky in that I have drawn comb in super frames that I can provide them but with foundation they will draw it out with a good nectar flow and you don't want them contaminating the super frames with sugar syrup if there is a chance of having a small crop of honey off them from this Summer. Stewart

[@BzzzantHoney]

Ya its easier marked... last year i didn't mark my queens, then when i had 60,000 occupants per hive it was a disaster finding them. this year i marked every colony while populations were low and queens easy to spot, since then i have found the queen every time i have wanted to. sometimes i had to run through the boxes again because she hid on a sidebar though. i found the best thing for me was to immediately split a double brood box so she cant box hop on you. double brood box's is mandatory where i live for winter.

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Shaun, Marked queens are the easiest to find for sure. Our Winter's are fairly mild by comparison. Single brood boxes are fine mostly. Stewart

[@bdneoh]

Hi Stewart. I was very hopeful that this would be more helpful. I love your videos and you are always methodical. In this case, since you had quickly found your marked queen and from then on you were explaining things hypothetically it was tough to learn exactly what you mean. So, for example, it would be very nice if you could show what a queen looks like when you look "across a frame" as you described. Or you could show how you scan the outsides of a frame but don't find her but then find her toward the middle, and then you can point her out. As a new beekeeper, who has struggled to learn this skill, it would be great to just have example after example that I could test myself on. That you found her on the first frame and she was marked is very different from my situation. I am desperately trying to find her in a very full 2-body hive, and therefore moving through the frames is a bit more complicated as bees swell up the sides and make it a bit more tricky to place the frames back in. And I have to go through 20 frames. (I am trying to locate her to do a split before they swarm. I can see the queen cups with eggs so I have a few days I guess.) I'll keep trying though. Anyway, keep up the good work, and take my comments for what they are: opinions.

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Ben, I understand the frustration of the new beekeeper trying to find a queen in a large colony. I'm sorry my video didn't help out on this occasion, it's a difficult technique to show on film and showing how to scan a frame is tricky. You obviously have some very prolific bees with that many in a double brood. Where are you based? Stewart

[@bdneoh]

Dutchess County New York. Garden Zone 5. We are still in the spring bloom, but it will be over soon.

[@lindashawcross910]

Hi Stewart! New beekeeper here (only 1 month) and have so enjoyed your videos. I am in North Carolina, so weather a bit different, but love learning from you! Question: is it normal to have so many "rudimentary queen cells?"

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Linda, Thanks for commenting. Regarding the rudimentary queen cup numbers, yes, there are always cups being made in Spring/early Summer and the numbers vary from hive to hive, probably associated with the "swarminess" of the colony. Stewart

[@malcolmaldridge8973]

Anyone know where to get their bee suits with the square design zip on the hood please?

[@munibungbeeking1719]

Stewart could you put that wonky frame above the excluder when the super goes on then when the bees hatch take it out ?

[@richardsydenham4105]

One could if the frames are the same size but most supers are smaller frames than the brut box one resson to have the same sive frames for all your hives but when you get alarge brut box full with honey it gets very heavey

[@robertharrison9490]

Hi Stuart great videos.Would like to know what make of gloves your wearing please.thanks Robert

[@joncotn]

Robert Harrison - I can answer that one for you....I use the same , google 'Nitrile beekeeping gloves'. They're fantastic but not 100% sting proof. Far better than the thick rubber or goat skin equivalent. House hold 'marigold gloves' are good too. Just make sure you don't have your wrists exposed as that seems to be a favourite spot👍

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Robert, Thanks for your comments. Here's a link to the gloves I buy from Amazon. amzn.to/2lYOHY0 Stewart

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Jon, BBWear Gauntlets are the answer to the wrists problem, I use them all the time and they work really well. Stewart

[@joncotn]

The Norfolk Honey Company - yes, they're a good investment

[@ArtGardens]

You say " another queen cup' running out of space . So if you place another brood or super on the top , does that mean no more queen cups. Or do they make queen cups anyway?

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Iris, Nice to hear from you again. They are likely to produce more rudimentary queen cups but it may prevent them swarming. but it might just be that they haven't drawn out all of the foundation in the brood box due to various factors such as lack of food, lack of enough bees etc. It can be quite confusing sometimes. Stewart

[@cybernerd8414]

I have been a Beek since 2019 and can never find the queen in a queen right hive, therefore I am unable to clip and mark her, and also because of this I cannot remove her when carrying out swarm prevention, therefore they always swarm. Any advice?

[@mariakeenan4908]

So if you're finding queen cells which indicates the bees running out of room, do we need to add on another box?

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Maria, It is one of the indicators of swarming but by the time you discover queen cells it's too late to add another box to prevent swarming. Once they get the urge, they just keep going. Stewart

[@LadyAmatsu]

A very vigorous waggle dancer at 6:00, look at her go!

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi, Yes she is really dancing her heart out! Stewart

[@jamborstarjaba1648]

What are the gloves you use

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi J.J., check out this video for details about the gloves. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqjapJ6bZth-aJY Stewart

[@nealmorris6759]

I do not see you spacing the frames. Others go to much trouble to space the frames

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Neal, thanks for commenting. I am guessing you mean spacing the frames apart to get the queen to hide inbetween two adjacent frames? I don't normally have any problems finding the queen in a colony and if I don't well there are always eggs to see and that for me is enough. Best wishes. Stewart

[@RaySarasin]

Nice frames there time to add another box

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Ray, thanks for commenting. Yep, they were a nice colony. Stewart

[@malcolmaldridge8973]

Anyone know where to get same bee suits as theirs with the square design zip on the hood

[@beatamalik4835]

Good Morning. Please let me know how I can find you on FB. I'm from Poland and I have found your youtube channel today and it's really excellent done for everybody. I'm happy to subscribe your channel and I would like to be the member of your fb group. Best regards Beata

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Beata, Thanks for commenting. The FB group is called "Stewart's Beekeeping Basics". See you there. Stewart

[@Mitchcraft.]

I would love to keep bees but stay with my folks. I always get bumble bee queens in my bedroom around august

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Get your folks interested in keeping bees and join in together.

[@twinreddragonsbrewery1796]

hi wouid the queen lay eggs in all the queen cups or are bees just trying to make cups

[@TheNorfolkHoneyCo]

Hi Paul, There are a lot of variables involved but yes she might lay in all of them if they were looking to swarm. Stewart

[@jkgkjgkijk]

Smoking is a nuanced art and as one progresses it loses its mystique-- leaving you with full understanding of how to go about it.