You found 12 queens in 1 hive ?? Can you explain how a hive has so many and why please. Thanks in advance
When you can hear queens piping, it means that the bees are keeping the queens locked in their cells.
I learned this from listening to the queens in my observation hive. The hive has already swarmed at least once. Once the queens are fully developed, they are constantly trying to get out. The bees are constantly glueing the cap back on until they decide to let one out for the next swarm.
The minute you disturb the hive (even just smoking it) the queens are left alone long enough to cut open the cap and get out. Sometimes when I lifted a frame the q cells would break open and then we would find the queen walking around. Most of the time I opened the queen cells and allowed the queens to walk into my One Handed Queen Catcher which made it easy for marking them.
One queen got loose and went air borne after I marked her, we found her a few minutes later on a frame that one of my newbees was holding.
Jim