FIND YOUR QUEEN

The queen bee is ALWAYS the largest bee in any hive. Scan the bees milling about on the frames when you open the lid and patiently and carefully watch to pinpoint the largest bee, she will be your queen. The queen bee’s body will be both narrower and longer than the bodies of all the other bees.
The honeybee queen will have a long abdomen that extends out beyond the base tip of her wings – none of the other bees will have such a long abdomen. The tip of the queen bee’s abdomen will be decidedly pointy instead of more rounded like the rest of the bees in the colony.
The back of the queen bee is hairless, it will not have little fuzzy hairs on it like the other colony members. The lack of hair often gives the back of the queen bee a more shiny appearance.
The back of the queen bee will have a significantly more black cast to it instead of the yellow to gold with black stripes like the other bees co-existing inside of your hive.
The legs of a queen bee will be lighter in color than the worker bees that surround her. The legs of the queen are also longer than those found on the workers or drones.
Although it can be difficult to judge thickness amid the moving mass of bees, a queen bee is not just narrower and longer than the other bees, her overall body is thicker, as well.
The queen bee’s legs can also be described as being splayed. Her legs are far more visible than the legs of the other honeybees in the hive because they are splayed outward and away from the body. The worker and drone bees have legs that are placed directly beneath their bodies, making them harder to spot when they are either walking or resting.
Carefully inspect the stinger on any bee you suspect might be the hive queen. Lift the bee up by the middle of its body (the thorax), and gently hold it beneath a magnifying glass for closer inspection. You will be able to slightly but usually clearly, be able to determine the shape of its stinger using this inspection method. The active queen bee will have a stinger that is free of barbs and looks long and smooth. The stingers on workers will boast stingers with barbs – making it closely resemble a knife with a serrated edge on the lower half.
Review the honeybee larvae present inside of the frames. Baby bees look a lot like tiny white grubworms. Typically, you will see the honeybee larvae piled up right next to each other. Because the queen bee is the only egg layer in a healthy hive, she should be hanging around next to her offspring. Always lift out the frames with great care to avoid accidentally smashing the queen in the process of searching for her inside of the hive.
Search all of the other usual locations a queen bee could most likely be found, if she is not spotted by the honeybee larvae. None of the bees that are visible on the outside of the hive or even on the interior edges near the hive entrance will be the queen bee. As already noted, a shy or cautious queen might be in the corners of the hive – but always a corner away from the entrance. She is also often spotted in the deep frames of the hive – well protected from the outside world and attackers like robber bees, mice, ants, etc. If your beehive is a horizontal type, start searching for the queen in the center hives. If the honeybee has a vertical design, the queen bee will most likely be in or near the bottom of the frames.
Queen bees are as smart as they are powerful. Once a human hand lifts the hive box lid and starts pulling out frames for inspection, she is prone to jumping off the frame and going as low as she possibly can to get away from what she likely deems as a threat.
Watch for bees clustering about inside of the hive, this often means the queen is on the move and they are trying to follow and stay close to her. If you spot any honeybee larvae in an unusual spot, the queen could also quite possibly be in the near vicinity, as well.
You may also see a parting of the bees when the queen bee is moving around inside of the hive. All the drone bees and worker bees will quickly clear a path for the colony royalty. The clustering noted above occurs behind her when she is moving and around her when she is still.
Another way to quickly spot a queen bee is to scan the frames and search for the one bee that is not busying itself with chores. This would be the queen. If one bee is consistently still, merely awaiting food to be delivered and a time to mate, odds are great that she is the leader of the hive.
Although it will take a trained eye and possibly a magnifying glass, you can also detect the queen bee inside the hive by looking for the one colony member that is getting an intense amount of attention and having food brought to her by other bees. This type of activity can occur with virgin queens or young queens as well as the active queen, but not to the same degree of attentiveness.

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