Two Queens

[mark s]

Hi All
Just inpected a hive and ive found ive got two queens in the same colony.
Its a small colony only over about three frames in a standard bb,ive seen brood at all stages over about two frames, not much in the way of stores but they have some.
Can you tell me what i should do with this situation or tell me my options.
Cheers mark

 

[drstitson]

Obviously superceeding/ed.

Firstly - sounds like the colony should be in a nuc (preferably poly) rather than a standard bb.

Secondly - you don't know if the new queen is mated successfully or if old queen still doing the business.

2 choices -

a. either leave them to sort it out themselves (in a nuc!), perhaps with a frame of bees and emerging brood from your other, presumably stronger hive.

b. again using other hive as a donor make up two nucs - half of colony + one queen in each plus a top up of bees and brood.

 

[mark s]

Just moved them to nuc

 

[drstitson]

if it's a wooden nuc i'd also put a block of kingspan or similar on top of the crownboard.

 

[Tim1606]

Hi All
Just inpected a hive and ive found ive got two queens in the same colony.
Its a small colony only over about three frames in a standard bb,ive seen brood at all stages over about two frames, not much in the way of stores but they have some.
Can you tell me what i should do with this situation or tell me my options.
Cheers mark

We had three queens in one of our colonies last year. After taking out the unmarked one (there was a white and blue marked in there, long story but you get the picture) we left them to it.

This sunday as we were going through them, i found the white marked one. There was 6 frames of sealed brood + eggs etc, when my other half then says, hey there's the blue one we saw last year.

Don't know what's going on but they made it through the winter so we've left them to get on with it.

 

[mark s]

Just checked my other hive and they seem to be q- no brood at all, loads of stores a few drone brood and what looks like a supercede cell in the middle of one frame and is occupied but not yet capped.About three frames of bees so not a huge colony either so ive stuck them in a nuc to.
Could i take one of my two queens that ive got in my other hive and introduce her into this hive ??
Cheers mark

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Hi All
Just inpected a hive and ive found ive got two queens in the same colony.

Don't let Prince Charles know. He might get ideas.......


D.

 

[drstitson]

if no obvious brood (eggs, larvae or capped cells) apart from scattered drone brood then i would expect that any "supercedure" cell will be occupied by a drone larva; a last ditch attempt by the colony as old queen fired her last couple of unfertilised eggs.

before you considered requeening or uniting colonies you'd need to search hard for the old queen.

 

[Busy Bee]

Checked one of my hives on Sunday and found Open queen cell with larvae present could not find queen but eggs where present. Definately a supersedure although was surprised to see 6 frames of brood at all stages ... mmm. Brood pattern does not suggest something wrong with queen. Will leave alone and check in a weeks time.

Busy Bee

 

[drstitson]

Busy bee - how old is your queen? if older than 2 years presumably very well mated and still firing on all cylinders still BUT pheromones naturally waining with age hence the supercedure response. or she got damaged somehow.

what is her history? any swarming previously? perhaps she's one of the sought after supercedure strains.

If it were me and she is still laying well when you next check the queen cell in 5 days i'd make up a nuc for the frame with the QC. Colony may well try again. so long as you can spare brood and bees from your two hives and HM is still laying well i'd just use the situation to my advantage.

 

[mark s]

Ive checked real hard and can see no evidence of a queen or her offspring.
I think ill unite and let the queens sort themselves out.

 

[Busy Bee]

she is a new queen came from one of my best hives very prolific. Colony would be still quite small but a nice size for this time of year. By not seeing the queen I would be very reluctant to make up a nuc until I could see the queen was in good visable condition. I can't help but feel it would be better to leave alone as the bees know best as to the queens viability....They are superseding for a good reason.

Busy Bee