>Does anyone have a Yellow or Red marked queen still working anywhere? Yes, lots. Reds are not routinely replaced this year, and yellows as the opportunity arises. After we have completed the requeening process for this season (ends this week) we will still have around 300 to 350 Reds and about 50 yellows in service to go into the coming winter. We also had approx 15 whites and one blue this spring still active and doing generally well, but we have since raised a crop of young queens from these long lived old ladies and replaced them with some of their own progeny. A certain proportion of older queens, including a good number of the yellows of good strength, sportingly supercede which saves us a lot of work. (We keep them under pressure to lay which encourages this to happen) Important point though is that these are A.m.mellifera blacks, or crosses including them, which tends to be longer lived than our other strains anyway, and it is in Scotland where our seasons are relatively short, so queen 'burn out' does not happen so quickly as in areas with a longer season. -- Murray McGregor