What a surprise.....

[Haughton Honey]

Just done the first full inspection of the year on one of my double brood Nationals, which I thought was pretty active even in 16c when approaching, and found two Queens....one laying in the upper part of the lower box and one laying in the upper part of the upper box - both with about 4 frames of brood and loads of stores left.

Plenty of drone brood to be found in both brood boxes too.

The colony was re-Queened during August last year and the older Queen moved to a nuc box.

Made my day!

 

[Tom Bick]

Will they both co exist for a long time or do you expect one to be thrown out of the hive soon.

 

[Poly Hive]

Longest I heard of was 18 months, and both were marked queens and so dated correctly.

PH

 

[mbc]

I've had hives going into the winter with two queens but one always seems to dissapear over the winter.
Interesting stuff - are you going to split them or let nature take its course ?

 

[Haughton Honey]

I decided to split the Queen that I didn't recognise in a to a nuc box and will aim to build it up to double brood during the season.

Both Queen's laying patterns were solid and plenty of pollen in both boxes, so it was pretty good news all round. I've refrained from feeding just yet as they have plenty of stores between them.

I suspect one is a supercedure Queen that, as you rightly say, can co-exist in a colony for a period with her mother.

 

[sherwood]

I might have been inclined to put a swarm board {solid crown board with an entrance in the top Half) between the boxes and let them exist as 2 colonies under one roof.