# Surprise



## dug_6238 (May 9, 2007)




----------



## Skinner Apiaries (Sep 1, 2009)

two queens?


----------



## dug_6238 (May 9, 2007)

Could be. It would be nice if the clusters merge before brood rearing gets going. I think that maybe this happens more than we sometimes realize, and would explain why sometimes in our late-winter inspections we find that occasional tiny, isolated, dead golf-ball sized cluster away from the main cluster.

Most times a box wouldn't be opened this time of year so we might not ever know. I'd rather have not known, but it's an interesting observation either way...


----------



## concrete-bees (Jun 20, 2009)

wow - and here i thought i was loosin it - i checked my strong hive last week and found a clump of dead bees lower in the box - way away from the larger healthy cluster ?? thought that maybe they just un clustered and didnt make it back ??? i just cut them out and discarded them - but in the future i will inspect the clump to see if there is a dead queen - 

would be nice to have 2 queens !!!!! mass brood!!!!


----------



## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

You might as well feed the bees while you have the hive open.
Ernie


----------



## dug_6238 (May 9, 2007)

BEES4U said:


> You might as well feed the bees while you have the hive open.
> Ernie


That's why I had that one open.


----------



## yem (Jan 19, 2010)

is that like the "calm before The swam"?!?!


----------



## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

It's been a couple weeks? since I looked at mine, and one hive had the mother and daughter on the same side of the same frame. I'll check back sometime after the first of March and see what's up at that time.


----------



## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Both clusters are on honey. Can't you remove the two middle frames and move the two clusters together? You can do that in the 30s.


----------



## brac (Sep 30, 2009)

MP, would that be a good thing to do if there are 2 queens?


----------



## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

They've lived this long together. I find many colonies with two queens...once I found 30% in one group of 50 colonies. Sometimes there are 3.


----------



## FindlayBee (Aug 2, 2009)

Although I have not had my first season with bees yet, it looks like the cluster just broke up and moved in two directions.


----------



## NDnewbeek (Jul 4, 2008)

If there are two queens, what is the best management strategy?

1. Leave them until one queen kills the other?
2. Pinch one of the queens? (although, I think this might be the worst thing to do)
3. Move one cluster into a new hive?
4. Try to maintain them as two colonies in one box?

???


----------



## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

If I were you I'd go with #4 for now, eventually #3. #2 is the worst option, and #1 you probably wouldn't go wrong with it, but it's a waste of resources. Tough question though, interested to hear what others say.

I heard in school that as many as 40% of hives have two queens in them. I'm not sure how much I believe this though, as I have only once found two queens in one hive (and I have reason to believe they were going to swarm soon, or was a supersedure of some sort).


----------



## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

NDnewbeek said:


> If there are two queens, what is the best management strategy?
> 
> 1. Leave them until one queen kills the other?


In February in PA? I would do # 1 after moving the clusters together.


----------

