Is she hiding in the crowd?

[nickd]

First inspection today and all appears well. The bees are active and very good tempered just as the were last year. Plenty of stores available to them and I could see sealed brood and larvae (not eggs but it was a very quick look). I did not see the queen though which is unusual as she was marked with a large very bright red spot and normally stands out like a sore thumb. My question is, is it possible for the paint spot to be rubbed of when the bees cluster over winter? And, If this is the case would you suggest re-marking.

 

[Tom Bick]

It is possible you simply missed her or the paint has rubbed off or you are looking for a new queen. Either way best if you delay remarking the queen until May. Better still work on finding her without the paint.

 

[yeogi75]

I've never had problems finding the queen , the best way for me is scan across the frame and look for gaps opening up ahead of queen or clusters of bees in circles , some time she has her behind buried into a cell laying a egg then she is very hard to spot , its easier to spot eggs than search for queenie

 

[YorkshireBees]

As Tom Bick said. One of the queens from last year I spotted at the weekend has just a smidgen of red paint left on her!
Sometimes it gets rubbed off sometimes it doesn't.

Along with Yeogi75's advice I was told if you hold the frame horizontally* (assuming the comb is reasonably flat) you can sometimes spot her as her legs are longer so she stands taller than the worker bees.

*Before anybody says anything about NOT holding the frame horizontally, I only ever do it if I am having problems finding the queen and NEED to.

Also sometimes I spot mark / unmarked queens easily and sometimes not. I only ever try to find her if I NEED to for marking / swarm control otherwise I don't even bother looking as it takes too much time.