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Author Topic: Queens everywhere....  (Read 2409 times)

Offline manfmlox

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Queens everywhere....
« on: July 26, 2017, 09:09:30 am »
I have two hives that I started this year. One is very strong that started as a package, the other is getting there and was started from a nuc. Both are full of brood/eggs/larvae and seem to be doing well.

In my bigger hive I had noticed, a week ago, there were two closed supersedure cells on one frame. The queen was still laying and appeared fine (she is a 2017 queen). I also noted one cell in the smaller hive. A few days ago I noticed a bee from the big hive carrying out and dropping a queen, almost fully developed, but still alive. She was obviously pulled out of the cell a couple days early.

So yesterday I did an inspection. Both hives now have two queens! In the smaller hive they were both on the same side of the same frame. I'm not sure what's going on. There's no overcrowding and it seems too late in the season for a swarm, but the original queens were both laying.

Any ideas/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Queens everywhere....
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2017, 09:47:05 am »
This is what happens when you have a supercedure. It is a good thing. You will have 2 queens laying at the same time, yea. The bees detected a problem and corrected it. If you bought the bees from out of town, you now have a queen that is mated with local drones, hopefully feral. Eventually the bees will remove the older queen.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline manfmlox

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Re: Queens everywhere....
« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2017, 10:35:14 am »
Thanks Jim!

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Queens everywhere....
« Reply #3 on: July 26, 2017, 12:48:42 pm »
NP. Enjoy your bees.
 Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline TheHoneyPump

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Re: Queens everywhere....
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2017, 11:39:04 pm »
Extra queens is a nice problem to have.  Catch them and cage them or move into small nucs before they dual and you lose.  Then either make up splits (new hives) with them, or sell the queens and make some $

There is risk of casting swarms or losing a queen or both from injury when they ultimately fight.  Best course of action is to capture one and move her out so they are both cosy and happy and safe in their own homes.  OR if you know which is new and which is old, and you know how old she is ... if she is over 2 years old, kill her yourself so the new queen takes over without having to fight and risk injury.  If less than 2 years, save her.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2017, 11:58:53 pm by TheHoneyPump »
When the lid goes back on, the bees will spend the next 3 days undoing most of what the beekeeper just did to them.

 

anything