2 Queen hives

[ladaok]

any person with experience? mostly interested in using this system to get splits up and running much more quickly... Miller claims a good functioning hive can support a hive 4x as great,... can this not be used to help a new queen build up quickly ?

 

[Zante]

From what I've read in a properly managed 2 queen hive a smaller percentage of house bees is needed so bees become foragers earlier. You have a larger percentage of foragers who forage for longer, so production is higher than 2 separate hives.

Not sure how it would work in practice though, I was planning to try a 2 queen hive once I've got a bit more experience under my belt, just out of curiosity.

 

[mbc]

I once bought out a beekeeper who had about a dozen "two queen" hives. He was most annoyed when I went through the lot and every single one had reverted to a single queen hive by itself so I negotiated a much reduced price. This was in the autumn so it would have probably been a different story earlier in the season' but the lesson I took from that was not to bother wasting my efforts on two queen hives.

 

[dpearce4]

I have been running a few 2 queen hives over the last couple of seasons and still have one hell of a lot to learn about them. They sound easy to run but they arnt from what I have seen but I do intend to continue running them as I can see a benefit.

If you can find a copy of this book it talks about more than 2 queens, 4 or more I think upto 7.

THE SKYSCRAPER HIVE

Dugat, Father M.

Published by Faber, London, 1948

 

[Zante]

I have been running a few 2 queen hives over the last couple of seasons and still have one hell of a lot to learn about them. They sound easy to run but they arnt from what I have seen but I do intend to continue running them as I can see a benefit.

I'm guessing that each brood box will need its own entrance, correct?

 

[Vortex]

Or current Association chairman has a 2 queen hive.. He only knows this from the fact he happened to be passing the hive a couple of weeks ago and saw a marked queen sitting on the landing board. This caused him to go through the hive and he found a second marked queen (they are both marked yellow). He then went back through his records and found that he has clipped and marked 2 queens in this hive this year .. about 8 weeks apart.

The hive is a national 14x12 with a single entrance..

 

[Finman]

any person with experience? mostly interested in using this system to get splits up and running much more quickly... Miller claims a good functioning hive can support a hive 4x as great,... can this not be used to help a new queen build up quickly ?

Miller has one (1) year experience.


Queen cannot build quickly. All depends how much workers can feed and keep warm brood.

Queen can lay 2 boxes, but 5 frame nuc can lay only 3 frames.

 

[Truble]

Multi queen hives (with several queens) are in use, mainly in China. The trick apparently is to clip all the queens mandibles so they can't fight.
No experience of using it myself.

 

[Finman]

Multi queen hives (with several queens) are in use, mainly in China. The trick apparently is to clip all the queens mandibles so they can't fight.
No experience of using it myself.

This year I have experience on 2 metre high hives. Do you want taller hives/


... To make new nucs....

I started to plan 2-tower system. I cannot lift full honey langstroths from hight of 2 metres.... Any experience? ....

 

[Truble]

I started to plan 2-tower system. I cannot lift full honey langstroths from hight of 2 metres.... Any experience? ....

Lots, I always take a portable stepladder with me to get those hard to reach supers off.

 

[sugarbush]

any person with experience? mostly interested in using this system to get splits up and running much more quickly.

It would be much less troublesome to salt your splits with frames of sealed brood from a production colony.

I have had 3 queens in a single hive, but it was by there own choosing and I left it that way. Eventually they figure out a way to get down to a single queen again.

I personally can not logically think of any reason to go through the trouble of attempting to maintain multiple queens in a single hive. In my mind if you have two laying queens, you will need twice as many house bees to tend the brood which would reduce field bee numbers.

 

[ladaok]

Ta for the replies ... ahhh so, we're on the wrong track, ... my fault, i'm meaning 2 queen BOX hive .. BUT keeping the queen in each box apart with an excluder system.

How you would ever run 2 qn's in one box ( excepting mother / daughter sometimes ) must be high on impossible

 

[Truble]

How you would ever run 2 qn's in one box ( excepting mother / daughter sometimes ) must be high on impossible

As I mentioned earlier in this discussion the Chinese are already doing this. They keep several queens in un-separated boxes. Coloss describes how they do this by clipping their mandibles, even shows a picture of 5 queens on one frame of brood. I'm not able to post links as my post count is under 10 but if you do a google search for CHINESE MULTI QUEEN HIVES it's the first hit you come across. Not sure it's anything I'd wish to try myself, but it's certainly possible.

 

[Hivemaker.]

As I mentioned earlier in this discussion the Chinese are already doing this.

I think you made a few comments about it in this earlier thread as well?

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=27573

 

[maddydog]

I think you made a few comments about it in this earlier thread as well?

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=27573

Heh, had the same thought myself, must be the username!

Folk have enough difficulty blobbing a bit of paint or clipping a wing, imagine snipping mandibles!!

 

[Finman]

to get splits up and running much more quickly... ?

The task was to get splits... And now we are clipping mandibles to make nucs.

This seems more dreaming than real beekeeping.
.

Modern queens lay so much, that you do not need 2-queen colonies.

How the nuc can develop faster?...

- Buy a laying queen instead of own queen cells. You win one brood cycle
- use warm poly nucs , buy it or do your own
- no mesh floor in nucs
- good pollen pastures like clover
- size of start versus do not spoil honey yield

.

 

[ladaok]

2 queen hive

The task was to get splits... And now we are clipping mandibles to make nucs.

This seems more dreaming than real beekeeping.
.

Modern queens lay so much, that you do not need 2-queen colonies.

How the nuc can develop faster?...

- Buy a laying queen instead of own queen cells. You win one brood cycle
- use warm poly nucs , buy it or do your own
- no mesh floor in nucs
- good pollen pastures like clover
- size of start versus do not spoil honey yield

.

yes we have side tracked a little ( a lot )

" Modern queens lay so much, that you do not need 2-queen colonies." ...
mmmm... queens are a bit variable I haven't done this myself, so I can't draw any conclusions
i'm really thinking ... if you have a strong hive, place an excluder then another box with perhaps 2-3 brood frames with a virgin / mated Qn ( a small entrance / exit opposite the lower box ) will this not hassen the upper box development , because of the strong lower boxes excess capacity to supply the necessary pollen / nectar ?

 

[Finman]

yes we have side tracked a little ( a lot )

" Modern queens lay so much, that you do not need 2-queen colonies." ...
mmmm... queens are a bit variable I haven't done this myself, so I can't draw any conclusions
i'm really thinking ... if you have a strong hive, place an excluder then another box with perhaps 2-3 brood frames with a virgin / mated Qn ( a small entrance / exit opposite the lower box ) will this not hassen the upper box development , because of the strong lower boxes excess capacity to supply the necessary pollen / nectar ?

I do not use excluder. I use 3 Langstroth boxes for brood. I have done this 54years.