Hello beekeeping friends, One persistent recurring thought/question I now have on this subject is, "If you saw a group of 25 bees with a queen among them, would you recognize which one was the queen." Would some of the people who can't find queens even recognize a queen if they saw one? Bad eyesight can be one problem that is very difficult to overcome, but barring that, if you had a box of mixed screws and bolts, could you sort them into two separate piles? Recognizing patterns and differences can be difficult for some people. In my opinion, you have to have first seen a queen, watched her walk and act, observe the physical differences between her and the rest of the bees, then come back to it and try again. In my personal experience, having a one frame observation hive in my livingroom as a conversation piece for two years (with an unmarked queen each year) was a very helpful item. I often looked for the queen as an "exercise" just to see if I could find her. Sometimes I found her right away and sometimes I could not find her at all and I had to give up. Finally, though, it got so I could find her almost every time. You have to remember that my one frame observation hive had glass on both sides and I could both sides of the frame. I would often go back to it later with a flashlight and try again before going to bed. It was a challenge and fun. That experience probably greatly assisted my ability to quickly find a queen because it was something that I had (unintentionally, but as a fun game) practiced doing over and over and over again with my observation hive. I recommend it as a worthwhile thing to do (keep an observation hive for fun, education, and practical experience). Best wishes to all in increasing our beekeeping skills and having fun while doing it. Layne Westover College Station, Texas p.s. can you pick out the queen when you get one in a queen cage in the mail with 4 or 5 attendant workers? There's another good exercise for beginners. Sometimes it's not easy (in the beginning) to tell which one is the queen, especially when they are active.