colony with 2 queens

[adrian wilford]

the first time i have ever witnessed this one, saw a nice queen during an inspection, on the 2nd frame, thought it was near the edge of the box but it did have eggs and larva on. thought i ought to go through the rest of the frames just to check on queen cups/cells and how many frames were layed up, and for stores, low and behold on the 8 frame there was a marked queen!!!!!!!!!!! then i thought how many drones were in the hive and on the frames to , i seriously think i have a drone layer and a worker layer!!!!!!! anyone would like to offer advice, at first i thought which one is the drone layer the old queen or the new one, ones a lovely yellow the other one very dark, i'm on buckfasts and on 14 x 12. i suppose i could put one in a super and keep the other in the brood box and nip the one which is the drone layer, after a couple of weeks when cells are capped.

 

[nelletap]

Someone at the MBBKA had two queens in a hive for some substantial time and wrote about it last year in one of their newsletters. I think the newsletters can be accessed by non members. At a guess it was probably about September last year. I have found a previous mention in the newsletter for July 2010 but I am sure there was a longer term example written about and with photos last year, too - or possibly even as late as Jan 2012. I've had a quick look and cannot find that second newsletter. I'll try to look more thoroughly tomorrow.

 

[Midland Beek]

. i suppose i could put one in a super and keep the other in the brood box and nip the one which is the drone layer, after a couple of weeks when cells are capped.

By the time you work out which is good and which is bad they might have killed the bad one.

 

[drstitson]

best to put new queen in a nuc for a bit and see which is doing the business. perhaps both!

 

[MuswellMetro]

it is not unusual to have two queens working mother and duaghter if the bees supercede in the autumn...by spring you only have one

it could be the case but it could also be a virgin and the workers are waiting for better weather to force out the old queen

in autumn i would just leave but i would like other split off a nuc.in spring...in 8 days you will start seeing whether it is drone drood or just seasonal drone build up

 

[Poly Hive]

I have posted this before but a Beefarmer friend had a sup running for 15 months, both queens clipped and marked.

PH