Queen Performance Tracking
The queen is the single biggest variable in any hive. Her genetics, age, and health determine the colony's honey yield, winter survival, varroa resistance, and swarm tendency. SunnyBee gives every queen in your apiary her own performance record — so your requeening decisions are driven by data, not guesswork.
Track Every Queen Free
What SunnyBee Tracks for Every Queen
Estimated eggs per day based on brood frame coverage recorded during inspections. Track whether laying is increasing, stable, or declining across the season.
Each inspection's brood frame assessment (solid, moderate, spotty) is recorded and aggregated into a brood pattern trend. Consistently spotty patterns trigger requeening suggestions.
Log colony mood from each inspection (calm, defensive, aggressive). A queen's pheromone quality directly affects worker behaviour — track it across inspections.
Introduction date, age in months, origin (purchased breeder, self-raised, supersedure), and mating notes all stored per queen. Know instantly when any queen is approaching end of productive life.
Compare honey harvest data against queen performance metrics. Identify which queens consistently produce the highest-yielding colonies across multiple seasons.
Every queen is automatically connected to her colony's lineage tree. Daughter queens inherit the performance data context of their mother colony — enabling true selective breeding.
When to Replace a Queen: SunnyBee's Decision Support
- →Brood pattern below 70% coverage for three consecutive inspections
- →Queen age exceeds 24 months with declining brood metrics
- →Consistent aggressive temperament impacting inspection safety
- →Low honey yield compared to other queens in the same apiary
- →Laying worker signs — multiple eggs per cell, side-laid eggs
Queen Performance — Questions Answered
How does SunnyBee measure queen performance if I can't always find her?
You don't need to find the queen directly. SunnyBee infers queen presence and performance from the inspection data you record: brood pattern, egg presence, and colony population. These are the same indicators experienced beekeepers use. Finding the queen herself is optional.
Can I compare queen performance across multiple hives?
Yes. The queen performance dashboard shows all your queens side-by-side with their key metrics — brood pattern score, temperament rating, age, and honey yield. This lets you identify your top performers and underperformers at a glance.
Does SunnyBee tell me when to replace a queen?
SunnyBee surfaces a requeening suggestion when multiple performance indicators show a decline over several inspections. It does not force the decision — experienced beekeepers may have valid reasons to keep an older queen — but the data is visible and the suggestion is made clearly.
How does queen performance tracking connect to colony lineage?
Every queen in SunnyBee is a node in the colony lineage tree. When you raise daughters from a high-performing queen, those daughter colonies inherit the performance context. Over seasons, you can see which genetic lines consistently produce high performance — and breed from them deliberately.
Is queen performance tracking available on the free plan?
Basic queen change recording and performance notes are available on all plans. The full performance dashboard, trend charts, and cross-hive comparison are Premium and PRO features.
Every queen deserves proper tracking.
Know which queens to breed from. Know which to replace.
Track Every Queen Free