Queen rearing

Royal jelly is secreted by the young bees and serves as food for the queen larvae and the other larvae for the first three days.
Only the queen larva continues to get it until the cap is closed.
It is a yellowish, cloudy substance with a pungent taste. Royal jelly is a protein-rich mixture of vitamins and carbohydrates.

Harvesting royal jelly is very labor intensive. Only a small amount (max. 300gr) can be harvested per colony.

The bee community is also called a bee colony. A bee colony is a strong social unit, the individual does not count. There are 5 to 7 thousand (winter) and up to 50 thousand bees (summer) in a colony.

A colony of bees is divided into groups: 1 queen, about 200 drones and the rest are workers. Because the queen is the most important bee in a colony, she is preferably marked. This is done by adhering a brightly colored plate with a number on the top of her breast shield.

By applying a mark it is easy to find the queen among the other bees and by the color also know her year of birth.

Only 5 colors are used to mark a queen. 

White in the years ending 1 and 6
Yellow in the years ending 2 and 7
Red in the years ending 3 and 8
Green in the years ending 4 and 9
Blue in the years ending 5 and 0