LJ,
What method of multiple queen hives do you use?
Do you remove the mandible?
Jim
Hi Jim
The multi-queen colonies I'm currently working with are 'seasonal set-ups' (meaning that a parent colony is over-wintered with a single-queen, with several daughter queens then raised and added to this colony during the spring). With multiple queens in the same box, these are kept apart by various forms of queen-excluder in order to prevent fighting between them. (rather than achieving this by mandible removal - something I just couldn't bring myself to do) This arrangement is being created solely for the purpose of raising a sequence of nucleus colonies throughout the season.
In contrast, the Chinese are keeping multi-queen colonies 'all year round' in the form of production colonies. As you mention - they're able to achieve this by surgically removing each queen's mandibles, then allowing them to live together 'side by side'.
Here's a paper which describes the method being used:
Sustainable multiple queen colonies of honey bees, Apis mellifera ligusticahttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christian_Pirk/publication/229087765_Sustainable_multiple_queen_colonies_of_honey_bees_Apis_mellifera_ligustica/links/09e41500422cf515ab000000/Sustainable-multiple-queen-colonies-of-honey-bees-Apis-mellifera-ligustica.pdfNow although they (again) don't mention any swarming having taken place, I think it's fair to assume by such omission that it's not a problem which is being encountered. In the above paper they comment: "Multiple queen colonies with two to eight queens cohabiting, free running and laying eggs peacefully have been produced since 1999 using the methods described."
As 2-queen colonies are often reported to produce brood and honey some 3x that of a single-queen colony, the output from an 8-queen colony must be congested to the point of being 'off the scale', and which would - under normal circumstances - provoke an instant swarming response. The presence of multiple queens without generating any swarming response must then surely be of significance ?
For the benefit of others, who may not be 'up to speed' regarding the importance of pheromones (which, being an electronics engineer and not a biologist, is something that Walt Wright would not perhaps have fully appreciated), a good place to start is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honey_bee_pheromonesSome recent (2016) research has now increased the 'identifiable' number of compounds present within QMP (Queen Mandibular Pheromone) to 58:
"Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Queen Reproductive Potential Affects Queen Mandibular Gland Pheromone Composition and Worker Retinue Response"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4900659/pdf/pone.0156027.pdfBy 'identifiable', I mean that 58 discrete compounds have been identified as existing within QMP - but not all have been 'identified' in the sense of having a name attached to them, nor of establishing their importance nor their function. Scientists are still only scratching the surface of this particular area of biology.
LJ