Siamese Queen Cells

[Ben Framed]

 A question about joined together at the base queen cells.  Today I was going through a hive and found about 10 queen cells. A couple of these were doubles, joined together at the base. The question as follows, is it hard to separate these cells without damaging one of the queens?
Thanks, Phillip

[van from Arkansas]

Hey ya Ben.  If your queens cells are joined or share a single wall then separating is most difficult or even impossible.  I should add the queen is in a protective cocoon, so as long as you don?t pierce the cocoon.

Certain time frames, days old, of a queen cell are very sensitive to movement, even laying a queen cell on its side can harm the queen. 

So, you can pic the biggest and sacrifice the other or try to put a queen cell cage on the bottom of each.  The latter would take some careful hand work.

For a newbie, you sure have your way with the bees: splitting, queens cells and all.  You studied much, listened to the right beeks,  so although you may have one year of hands on, your knowledge base is far above a newbie status.
Blessings Phil, to you and FAMILY.
Van

[Ben Framed]

Hey ya Ben.  If your queens cells are joined or share a single wall then separating is most difficult or even impossible.

So, you can pic the biggest and sacrifice the other or try to put a queen cell cage on the bottom of each.  The latter would take some careful hand work.

For a newbie, you sure have your way with the bees: splitting, queens cells and all.  You studied much, listened to the right beeks,  so although you may have one year of hands on, your knowledge base is far above a newbie status.
Blessings Phil, to you and FAMILY.
Van

I was afraid that would be the answer Mr Van. I was tempted to do surgery with my razor knife but thought better and knew I should ask.
Thank you Mr Van for the encouraging and kind words. I have studied, ask many questions here, watched many hours of video, and still make ignorant mistakes! An example, a week or so ago, I destroyed 12 perfectly good swarm cells. Mr Bush questioned me about the decision and helped me to see the era of my mistake. That and the good advice of Cao, Jim and I am thinking you chimed in also, along with others, and got me back on the right track. I do not ever want to destroy a swarm cell again. I am glad that I took the wise advice when I first started last year and made sure I built a lot of equipment so I would have plenty of equipment ahead of time and on hand as needed.  I hit the jackpot on todays queen cells and am happy and pleased.
I figured that your answer would probably be the right answer so I went ahead and placed the double queen cells in split boxes.  But let me add, if you would have told me  that they were easy and simple to separate, I was prepared to go back and salvage!! 😊😁 Thanks, Phillip

[van from Arkansas]

Mr. Ben, a positive sign for a good beekeeper is remorse when mistakes are made.  The remorse demonstrates a caring attitude towards bees.  Dont beat yourself up because of a mistake.  I have killed a lot of bees with the best of intentions.  I think ever beekeeper on the planet has drown bees trying to offer water out of kindness, I did.

What to focus on: is the learning, the year end results, and all the friends made along the way.
Cheers

[iddee]

I treat the twin cells as one, and don't try to separate them. The first one out will cure the problem.

[Ben Framed]

I treat the twin cells as one, and don't try to separate them. The first one out will cure the problem.

Thanks iddee, that is what I did. I put them in a two frame nuc. It is suppose to get down to 58 here tonight so I figured the two frame boxes would be better for holding heat in a smaller space. Maybe they will be alright. I did not just put them in with a frame of honey but instead I pulled a frame of mixed caped and open larvae along with honey around the edges for each split, thinking I would have enough nurse bee to keep all warm. I hope this works out. I feel like I did it right?

[cao]

I've gotten really lazy.  I treat all Queen cells on a frame as one.  Don't separate any of them.