There are times when the bee colony might not be performing well. Weak workers, tendency to swarm, slow production of honey, etc. Environmental factors aside, it is common practice to replace the queen to deduce problems of the colony.
Raising Queens
Queen rearing is practiced by hardcore beekeepers as it offers many benefits. One is that it is cheaper than buying a new one. You may need more as your replacement might be rejected by the colony. Second, you can also replace the queen routinely every year. A young queen is less likely to induce a swarm. Lastly, you can also sell them for quite a price to make up for the tedious task.
Queen Marking
It's hard to see where the queen is within the hive. You may prefer to mark her with a certain color on her back (thorax). They are easy to spot so it's easier to know when a colony becomes queen-less. Any color can be chosen but there's a standard utilized by professional beekeepers to mark the year it was born. Each color corresponds to one year, which is the last digit of the current year.
Model car paint is normally used to mark queen bees with no harm done.
White - 1 or 6
Yellow - 2 or 7
Red - 3 or 8
Green 4 or 9
Blue - 5 or 0
Replacing Queens
You'd want to replace a queen that is weak or becoming old before they are naturally superseded. Since the queen only usually makes queen cells when swarming, sometimes they die without producing a replacement. The colony is then forced to make an emergency queen by feeding existing larva with royal jelly. What would have been a worker bee would then emerge as a queen. Unfortunately, they are not as productive as a queen produced from queen cells.
Introducing a new queen isn't quite simple. There are no widely accepted methods so most of the time it is just a matter of trial and error. Knowing the behavior of your colony is the key to a successful replacement.
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