Your whole colony depends on this one bee.
£29
A strong, healthy queen is the foundation of everything. A failing queen, a missing queen, or the wrong queen can bring a colony to its knees before you even realise what’s happening. This module gives you the knowledge to manage your queens with confidence.
- 25 detailed video lessons on queen management and requeening
- Practical guidance on identifying, marking, and replacing queens
- Step-by-step requeening techniques for every common situation
Most colony problems trace back to the queen. Get this right and everything else gets easier.
This module is part of the The 14-Day Beekeeper (£149). Only buy this individual module if you’re specifically interested in this subject, without the context of the full course.
Why Buy This Module?
The queen is the most important bee in the colony, so by fully understanding the role she plays, and knowing how to recognise and fix the problems she can cause, you will get the very best from your bees.
- You’ll know what a good queen looks like—and what a failing one looks like. Learn to assess queen quality during inspections so you can act before a problem becomes a crisis. This is one of the most valuable skills in beekeeping.
- You’ll understand how to requeen successfully. From receiving a mated queen in the post to direct and slow release techniques, this module covers every method with clear, practical guidance for all common situations.
- You’ll know what to do when things go wrong. Laying workers, emergency cells, queenless colonies—these situations are stressful if you’ve never seen them before. After this module, you’ll handle them calmly.
- You’ll get support. Got a question about your queen or your colony’s behaviour? Reach out. We’re here to help you work through it.
Module Lessons
This module covers 25 specific topics. Each lesson gives you practical, experience-based guidance you can apply straight away.
1. What Is A Queen Bee
Everything you need to know about the queen—her role in the colony, her lifecycle, and why her health and productivity affects every single bee in the hive.
2. Importance of a Strong Queen
Why queen quality matters so much and how a strong, productive queen transforms colony behaviour, temperament, and honey yield.
3. Queens – What Does A Good Queen Look Like
Learn to identify a high-quality queen on the frame—her size, movement, brood pattern, and the signs that tell you she’s performing well.
4. Queens – What Can Go Wrong With Queen Bees
The range of problems that can affect your queen—from failing to poor mating to injury. Know what to look for and what each issue means for the colony.
5. Queens – How To Fix A Failing Colony
Step-by-step guidance on diagnosing a colony in trouble and choosing the right intervention—whether that’s requeening, combining, or letting the colony resolve the issue itself.
6. Queenright vs Queenless
How to tell the difference between a queenright and queenless colony—and why getting this diagnosis right before you act is so important.
7. How A Colony Raises A Queen
Understand the natural process by which colonies produce new queens. This context makes all queen management techniques much easier to understand and apply.
8. Different Types Of Queen
An overview of the queen types available to UK beekeepers—what the differences are, what each is suited to, and how to choose the right queen for your situation.
9. What Does F1 Mean
What F1 means in the context of queen breeding, why it matters for temperament and productivity, and how to use this knowledge when buying queens.
10. Angry Bees vs Calm Bees
What drives temperament in a colony, how quickly it changes after requeening, and why calmness is Laurence’s number one priority when selecting queens.
11. Successful Mating Conditions
What conditions a virgin queen needs for successful mating—weather, timing, drone availability—and what can go wrong if those conditions aren’t met.
12. Where To Buy Queens
A practical guide to sourcing queens—what to look for in a supplier, what questions to ask, and how to avoid common pitfalls when buying.
13. Buy Mated Queens or Rear Your Own
The pros and cons of buying in mated queens versus raising your own. Learn when each approach makes sense and what’s involved in queen rearing.
14. How To Receive A Mated Queen In The Post
What to do when your queen arrives—how to check she’s alive and well, how to store her if needed, and how to prepare the colony for introduction.
15. Different Types of Queen Cage
The range of cages used for queen introduction and why the cage type affects how you manage the release. Know which cage you have and what it requires.
16. Direct Release vs Slow Release
Two approaches to introducing a new queen—the differences, the risks, and when each method is most appropriate.
17. How To Requeen A Beehive
A complete, step-by-step walkthrough of the requeening process—from finding and removing the old queen to successfully introducing the new one.
18. How To Requeen An AMM Colony
Requeening a colony of native black bees requires a slightly different approach. Learn the specific considerations and techniques for this situation.
19. Killing A Queen
Sometimes you need to remove a queen deliberately. Learn how to do it and when it’s the right decision—including what to expect from the colony afterwards.
20. This Is What Happens If You Kill Your Queen – Emergency Cells
A real-world look at what happens when a colony suddenly loses its queen—emergency cells, colony behaviour, and what you need to do next.
21. Laying Workers
One of the trickiest situations in beekeeping. Learn how to identify a laying worker colony, why it happens, and what your options are for dealing with it.
22. DLQ
What a drone-laying queen is, why it happens, and how to manage a colony affected by this problem before it reaches a point of no return.
23. How To Mark Your Queens
Why marking matters and how to do it without harming the queen. Includes the international colour coding system so you always know your queen’s age.
24. Colour Coding
The international colour coding system for queen marking—which colour corresponds to which year and why using it correctly saves time and prevents confusion.
25. How To Clip A Queen Bee
Why some beekeepers clip queens and how to do it safely. Understand the technique, the reasoning behind it, and the trade-offs involved.
Part of the 14-Day Beekeeper
This Queen Bee module is one of 14 modules in the The 14-Day Beekeeper—our complete training program with 300+ video lessons, the Beekeeping Blueprint system, and 12 months of HiveQ membership.
If you’re new to beekeeping or just starting out, the complete course will serve you better. This module assumes you already understand colony dynamics, inspection techniques, and basic hive management. Without that foundation, some of the queen management decisions can be difficult to apply confidently.
The full course builds that knowledge step-by-step, so by the time you reach queens, you’ll have everything you need to put it into practice.
What students say
Learn why beekeepers choose us.Learned so much
was watching your videos long before you started 14DBK. Your simple method of getting the information across and genuine love of beekeeping shines through. My wife and I have now finished the course but are still learning so much from the HiveQ community. The ability to return to relevant modules at any time is an absolute blessing.
All anyone needs to start beekeeping
14DBK – Bought when it first launched and it’s been invaluable. Books, although valuable, lack the ability to watch someone actually do what they teach. 14DBK and the youtube channels new direction to education is all anyone needs to start beekeeping.
A reference library
I loved this course, as a new beekeeper it has been very helpful and we certainly be a reference library going forward that I can go back to time and again, I can fully recommend this for newbies and experienced beekeepers
A wealth of knowledge
Purchased the 14 day beekeeping course for my mum for christmas. She loved it! And we are excited to be going into 2026 with a wealth of knowledge and understanding of bees that we didnt have before.
Why Learn From Laurence?
Laurence Edwards has been teaching beekeeping for over a decade. His YouTube channel has helped hundreds of thousands of people start beekeeping with confidence, and his Beekeeping Blueprint system helped him increase his own honey yields by 400%.
This isn’t theory from a textbook. It’s practical, tested advice from someone who keeps bees every single day and has made every mistake so you don’t have to.
