‘Twinned’ Queens have ‘gone off lay’.

[Brown Beek]

This season, I decided to have a go at running twinned Nuc stacks on a single divided floor with opposing entrances, after seeing Michael Palmer’s brood factory setup.
One twinned stack (3 boxes high), was so strong, it made sense to super it over a QE to give more space and get a honey crop.
In that sense, all was well, as I got 3 supers of honey off the twinned colonies. That said, I have now removed further supers added to catch the dregs of the seasons honey, but oddly though, despite seeing the Queens in both colonies, there was no BIAS at all, bar what seemed in the poor light of the evening, to be the the barely noticeable patch of eggs.
I was wondering whether the sharing of super(s) this late in the season, with the shared Queen substance and sensed presence of the other Queen,has put each Queen off off lay, especially as the position is mirrored in both twinned hives.

Now the supers are off, and the colonies are isolated again, the plan is to feed 1-2-1 syrup to see if this stimulates some brood production. Fortunately, there are plenty of bees and stores and hopefully the time to re-establish the winter nest.

Has anyone had experience of this? Advice welcomed! Thanks

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

queens often go off lay at this time of year.
You want to be feeding them to store not trying to stimulate laying at this time of year - they will sort themselves out eventually

 

[Brown Beek]

Thanks JBM for the reassurance. I do hope they’ sort themselves out’.

Point taken about feeding for stores. Fortunately both sides of the stack are well provisioned with all but a four frames in the bottom box with sealed honey if not nearly full of same.

That said, I plan on feeding till they stop taking it or have nowhere to put it….And hope that the bees know best.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

so how many frames of stores in total does each colony have?

 

[Brown Beek]

At least 10. They are in 5 frame Nuc boxes, stacked three high, with the top two boxes are full of stores ,with the only ‘empty space’ in the bottom box.

 

[Brown Beek]

The brood nest was across the bottom 2 and part of the third boxes at one point, and it seems as this has shrunk, they have back filled all but the bottom box.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

At least 10. They are in 5 frame Nuc boxes, stacked three high, with the top two boxes are full of stores ,with the only ‘empty space’ in the bottom box.

then they have more than enough stores for the whole winter, I have nucs two boxes high which end up having surplus frames of stores removed in the spring.
I would stop feeding altogether now

 

[Brown Beek]

Thanks, that’s good to know.

I guess I can take advantage of the broodlessness and do an OA vape and look out for the Queens switching back on again.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Thanks, that’s good to know.

I guess I can take advantage of the broodlessness and do an OA vape and look out for the Queens switching back on again.

Wondering...Won't the Ivy flow restart brood rearing?

 

[Redcap]

This season, I decided to have a go at running twinned Nuc stacks on a single divided floor with opposing entrances, after seeing Michael Palmer’s brood factory setup.
One twinned stack (3 boxes high), was so strong, it made sense to super it over a QE to give more space and get a honey crop.
In that sense, all was well, as I got 3 supers of honey off the twinned colonies. That said, I have now removed further supers added to catch the dregs of the seasons honey, but oddly though, despite seeing the Queens in both colonies, there was no BIAS at all, bar what seemed in the poor light of the evening, to be the the barely noticeable patch of eggs.
I was wondering whether the sharing of super(s) this late in the season, with the shared Queen substance and sensed presence of the other Queen,has put each Queen off off lay, especially as the position is mirrored in both twinned hives.

Now the supers are off, and the colonies are isolated again, the plan is to feed 1-2-1 syrup to see if this stimulates some brood production. Fortunately, there are plenty of bees and stores and hopefully the time to re-establish the winter nest.

Has anyone had experience of this? Advice welcomed! Thanks

Can I check my understanding of this pls. You have had two separate nucs, with a further (brood?) box on top, then QE and then they share a common super(s)? So effectively two different colonies both filling the same super?

 

[Swarm]

Can I check my understanding of this pls. You have had two separate nucs, with a further (brood?) box on top, then QE and then they share a common super(s)? So effectively two different colonies both filling the same super?

Sounds like the stack was three nuc bodies each, then the excluder and full size supers added. It gives the brood factory nucs some extra work to do, They work in harmony, especially if the queens are closely related.

 

[Brown Beek]

Sounds like the stack was three nuc bodies each, then the excluder and full size supers added. It gives the brood factory nucs some extra work to do, They work in harmony, especially if the queens are closely related.

Sorry for the delayed response. Been in the poly, building a honey warmer for SWMBO.

Swarm is correct, and they did work in harmony providing a good honey crop till the flagged issue, but I am now persuaded that the shared supers ( which were placed above a QE) had nothing to do the brood break.