Can You Find the Queen? Ep.1

Test your queen bee-spotting skills with our queen-finding challenge. Here are some tips for locating a queen bee.

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👉 V I D E O S    T O    W A T C H    N E X T :

⏯️ More Queen-spotting Challenges    • Find the Queen  
⏯️ How to Catch a Swarm (why I always cage the queen)    • ❓Why I always cage the queen  

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Finding a queen inside a hive can be frustrating, even for seasoned professionals. These are some of the things we look for when trying to spot our monarch:

THE ABDOMEN
The queen’s abdomen can be up to twice as long as a worker bee’s.
The queen’s abdomen is often a different colour from the worker bees and can be a solid colour ranging from light yellow to solid black.
Queens with striped abdomens can be the hardest to spot as their markings offer better camouflage among the other bees.

THE THORAX
The queen also has a larger thorax (the section between her head and body).
When a bee, including a queen, first emerges from its cell, its thorax is covered in a fluffy down of hairs. Over time, the hairs are worn off. Because the queen lives much longer than the workers, her thorax can become black and shiny, which catches the eye.
Sometimes, the beekeeper marks their queen with a coloured spot of paint on the thorax. The colour denotes the year in which she was born.

BEHAVIOUR
Most queens will move away from strong light and open spaces, often dashing to the other side of the frame during inspections.
Because of her larger abdomen, the queen can move with a bit of a waddle.
Sometimes, she will have her wings out a little, almost like she is trying to maintain her balance, as she scrambles over the comb and other bees.
Sometimes, the other bees will clear a path for the queen as she moves around, but other times, she will duck into crowds of bees like she is taking cover.
Sometimes, the queen might be surrounded by a circle of bees. These bees are her retinue that attend to feeding and grooming her.
Older queens tend to be slower at moving around the combs, whereas very young queens can be erratic movers, darting and running all over the place.

💡 Please Share your queen-spotting tips in the comments.

We hope you enjoyed the challenge. Don’t forget that practice makes perfect, so hone your skills on the next challenge, and don’t forget to subscribe to be notified when the next one drops.

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Chapters
00:00 - Intro to Find the Queen
00:34 - Start the Challenge
01:43 - See the Answer

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➡️ More about Hinterland Bees https://www.hinterlandbees.com/

Contact: https://www.hinterlandbees.com/contact
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#beekeeping #queenbee #queen-spotting