2 queens through winter

[Beezy]

Hi,

I believe I have 2 queens currently in the hive, and was told that often the old & new queens will lay side by side during winter with no problems and then sort themselves out in spring. I just want to check that I don't have to do anything as I don't want one of them to disappear with half the bees on the first warmish day in spring! Do the bees normally get rid of the old queen when they feel the time is right?

Thanks

 

[Heather]

They will sort- and sometimes 2 queens will stay side by side- doubt you will lose half. Unless huge build up- just keep an eye on them- if getting crowded early March -split. All depends on weather too - if remains like this -look late Feb instead

 

[susbees]

if getting crowded early March -split.

If getting crowded, give more space? If the old queen's being superceded then why force one half to start over?

 

[Beezy]

It is a supercedure, so should I split or give more space if they're getting crowded? Hopefully they won't be as they're on 14x12 though...

 

[MJBee]

A late season supercedure will often result in the colony going into the winter with mother and daughter. However it is unusual for both to survive until spring.

I think you will find that only one queen is present when the spring inspections start.

 

[Heather]

If getting crowded, give more space? If the old queen's being superceded then why force one half to start over?

I was referring to the possibility of the 2 queens staying in hive- and as brood already evident in lots of hives in January - build up in March may be rapid. May not have room to give more space. Hard to assess from a distance. Just a thought to throw in.
Obviously if one queen you keep status quo.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

So, if one queen is killed off, is it always the old queen - and is the dirty deed done by the other queen or by 'balling' (or whatever it's called)?

Dusty

 

[Finman]

.
2 queen hive does not make more brood than one queen.

One queen is able to lay many times more but the hive has not nurser bees to rear all eggs.

2-hives will not have exceptional spring build up.

In second phase the cluster size and outdoor temp rules, how much the colony can rear brood.

 

[Andy Duff]

My stupid question is, have you seen 2 queens in your hive, and when did you inspect and discover this?

 

[Teemore]

Tom Seeley and Jamie Ellis spoke at the INIB conference last year. The subject of supercedure and two queens in a single colony came up during the Q&A session and both Tom and jamie commented that they and their research staff come across colonies with two queens on a not infrequent basis. They reason that this is a lot more common than bee keepers realise and that the tendency is that once you spot one queen in a clony, you stop looking for another one....

I have only been working with bees for a relatively short time so my experience of supercedure is derived from this forum, study and long conversations with old and knowledgable beekeepers. The only time I have seen more than one Queen in a colony was when I was called on to split A/S a friend's hive and when we started to go through the hive, multiple queens emerged from their cells. My interpretation was that he had already lost a prime swarm and that the colony was keeping some of the new queens in their cells until they were ready for them but the confusion from us working through the hive allowed them to hatch. He did get a new colony from the exercise and both it and the parent colony are doing well.