2 queens. Help please!

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Jaxxmac

New Bee
Joined
Aug 22, 2019
Messages
23
Reaction score
9
Location
Cornwall
Hive Type
Langstroth
Number of Hives
1
I could do with some expertise please. Around mid July I found a lovely Queen cell in my hive. My original red spot queen had been laying but the brood pattern was patchy and there was a lot of drone brood. I left them to their devices for 3 weeks and checked in and there was a lovely new Queen but no eggs and a lot of drones, no sign of old Queen so hurrah for nature! Thinking it was too early for her to be laying I gave it 2 weeks and checked in this morning. Lots of lovely capped and uncapped brood, eggs, still a lot of drones and 2 queens. 🤦‍♀️ So, do I split them before they swarm or leave them be? No pun intended. Thanks all.
 
I could do with some expertise please. Around mid July I found a lovely Queen cell in my hive. My original red spot queen had been laying but the brood pattern was patchy and there was a lot of drone brood. I left them to their devices for 3 weeks and checked in and there was a lovely new Queen but no eggs and a lot of drones, no sign of old Queen so hurrah for nature! Thinking it was too early for her to be laying I gave it 2 weeks and checked in this morning. Lots of lovely capped and uncapped brood, eggs, still a lot of drones and 2 queens. 🤦‍♀️ So, do I split them before they swarm or leave them be? No pun intended. Thanks all.
It's a perfect supersedure, leave them to it, they will get rid of the old queen once they are happy the new one is up to the job
 
Two queens in a hive, whilst not common, is not unheard of.
So, are the two queens the original red spot and the new one, or two new queens?
If you were confident that the original was on her way out and there was only one queen cell, then it sounds like supercedure to me.
Why do you think they are going to swarm?
I would leave them be. :)
 
Two queens in a hive, whilst not common, is not unheard of.
A lot more common than you think, it's just we don't look for them, once you find the one with the spot, you stop looking.
Had one hive a few years ago with mother, daughter and granddaughter living happily together and I think Murray McGregor once reported five queens in one hive!
 
Two queens in a hive, whilst not common, is not unheard of.
So, are the two queens the original red spot and the new one, or two new queens?
If you were confident that the original was on her way out and there was only one queen cell, then it sounds like supercedure to me.
Why do you think they are going to swarm?
I would leave them be. :)
Yep, original red spot and new one. I had a swarm in my first year and it stayed in a neighbours tree for a week before it went off and did it's thing all over town! Am a bit paranoid now. Plus I don't want to lose the bees again so was thinking maybe split and see if they start a supercedure again. But that seems a bit risky so wanted a 2nd opinion. Thanks.
 
A lot more common than you think, it's just we don't look for them, once you find the one with the spot, you stop looking.
Had one hive a few years ago with mother, daughter and granddaughter living happily together and I think Murray McGregor once reported five queens in one hive!
Wow! I like the idea of the old girl living out her days in peace. The new Queen is huge by comparison so she wouldn't stand a chance if the other one took her on.
 
Have often opened up for the first inspection in spring to find the queen from last year busily laying, then the next inspection, no sign of her, but a new unmarked queen in her stead.
 
It would be interesting to know what induces or prevents queens from fighting each other, especially if we could manipulate it to deliberately have a two-queen hive without having to separate them.
 
It would be interesting to know what induces or prevents queens from fighting each other, especially if we could manipulate it to deliberately have a two-queen hive without having to separate them.
You can. Just have two supers between them
 
A lot more common than you think, it's just we don't look for them, once you find the one with the spot, you stop looking.
Had one hive a few years ago with mother, daughter and granddaughter living happily together and I think Murray McGregor once reported five queens in one hive!

Heresy and blastfeemy should be burnt at the stake along with the hive from sodium and any printed material recording such a heinous corrupt and contemptible idea
 
Does anyone actually know what a happens to the old Q after SS, do they kill her or as I like to think they stop feeding her and either starve her or just force her out.
 
Today, we were catching the last queens of the year. Pretty exhausted from the year's work. I had a queen to cage. Marked her and picked up a cage from my table. Popped the cork and let her run in...OOPS...there was already queen in that cage. Told you...the end of the queen rearing year and in zombie mode. Well, didn't these two queens lock in a death battle!. I ripped of the screen and grabbed each queen by her wings. I was able to separate with no damage to either queen.
Just saying how fast it can happen. I've put two virgins together in a petrie dish and had it take a couple minutes before they attacked each other. In this case...a snap of the fingers.
 

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