2 Queens in a hive since August last year!

[everecar]

Hi,

I have 2 queens in my hive & I don't know what to do. I am fairly certain the superceedure happened in August as that is when the Q/C were ripped down. I saw the new queen for the first time at the end of February. In April & today in May I have seen BOTH queens. I didn't know what to do so I did nothing!

I note there is a lot of drone brood so thought maybe the new queen is a drone layer hence they have not kicked out the old one? Has anyone had this issue before? Should I interfere or just leave them?

Thanks

Caroline

 

[beesleybees]

hi, im a pretty new beek so dont take what I say as bible. Im sure a more experianced beek will give there opinion.

firstly, do you have capped woker cells?

if so, i would guess you need to find out which queen is doing what. If one queen is just a drone layer, she is pointless. Are you on single brood? and do you have any supers on at the minute

reason im asking, is i would try seperate the 2 queens via a queen excluder to find out what the queen is laying ie workers or drone. That way you can squish the drone layer. If a queen lays in the super, its not the end of the world

as i said, im a new beek so wait till a more experiance beek has their say. I will be watching too with interest

 

[everecar]

Hi,

There are more capped worker bees than drones but there are a lot of drone cells on 1 frame. However on one occasion I saw the queens they were on opposite sides of the same frame.

Good point about separating them, I have a spare brood box. I was worried any interference could upset the balance but I have already shook swarmed them - I forgot I had a new queen so on finding the old one I transferred her & shook the rest - ops.

Caroline