# 2 queen Langstroth vertical setup (it's TALL!)



## DancesWithBees (Jan 1, 2019)

I successfully raised a laying queen in the top box of a Snelgrove double screen board early season split. Two vigorous layers now on a honey flow. With confirmed two laying queens, I removed the DSB and replaced it with a queen excluder. So my set up from the ground up in a 10 frame langstroth is:
Screened bottom board, slatted rack, Deep with laying Queen A, QE, 4 honey supers, QE, Imrie Shim (so drones can fly), Deep with Laying Queen B, inner cover, telescoping cover. The hive is tall and I need a 3 tier step ladder to access.
My questions: Do I need to put a honey super above the top deep? Will the top deep colony accept having the honey below them instead of above? Thank you


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## COAL REAPER (Jun 24, 2014)

i have no insight as i have never run 2 queens verticle.
but consider when your flow will be ending and account 21 days from egg to bee, or ~40 days from egg to forager. at some point you may be better puling one queen into a nuc or just combining them. 
be safe on your ladder!


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## elmer_fud (Apr 21, 2018)

I always worry about my hives tipping when they get really tall.

I would split it into 2 hives, instead of keeping one really big one.


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## Fivej (Apr 4, 2016)

When I do this, I don't remove the Snelgrove and have all of the honey supers below and bleed off foragers so I don't have to add supers above. I load up with at least 4 supers below, but this depends on your flow. The stack can get unreasonable, so the next time I do this, I am putting the stack on the ground. 
The risk of pushing this is one or both hives can swarm in my area. Last time I did it, the lower hive swarmed and upper hive was on the edge of swarming. They seem to explode with this set up, and I got a good crop. Next time I would separate them sooner so I could better monitor them. It's hard to get yourself psyched to inspect a tall stack. 
Good luck. J


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

they would be better at storing below if the top entrance was high, like a propped lid, they like to put the honey on the "other side" of the brood nest.
normally above, normally in a long hive the end away from the entrance.

when I did the 2 queen, I have 2 deeps for the bottom one.
I also had a super on the top queen, each time I went to add space, I took a couple mostly full frames out from the top and placed them in the next super on the bottom queen.

At main flow (here is it sweet clover) I shuffled the boxes, new top queen on the bottom board, next 2 deeps on top her NO QE, between the queens. No longer need the brood, so they could eliminate one. I had enough bees. then a QE and all the supers in reverse order. so the oldest on top, the second one next below it, and then 2 empty ones over the brood boxes.
yes needed a ladder, often had 3 deeps and 7 or 8 medium supers.
Also drove stakes and put up side bracing to prevent them from toppling in the wind.

be aware when they swarm normally both queens go, the hive acts like 1 unit. the bees do not care if there are 2 or more queens,, the queens do however.

pay close attention to weather these as they get bigger can get moody, weather dependent, do not inspect during a pre storm time.. at 2 laying queens and 3 or more supers, I no longer did full inspections, I just "let it ride" pop the top part add room put it back.
also they can turn robber during dearth, and use NUCs for snacks.

have fun, the 2 queen hive can be a ride to remember.

GG


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## Outdoor N8 (Aug 7, 2015)

Gray Goose said:


> be aware when they swarm normally both queens go, the hive acts like 1 unit. the bees do not care if there are 2 or more queens,, the queens do however.


And it is a sight to behold !!


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Thinking....
What prevents people instead to be running two queens side-by-side (instead of in a single stack)?

So the main production stack is a *single queen* and managed conventionally.
You simply keep shaking the bees from support colony into the production colony (this the production colony gets the benefit of two queens and yet single-queen management).
As a matter of fact, the main production colony can even suck the bees from three queens - no particular difference.

Just this entire huge setup as-is (plus the dual-queen complication) just makes me nervous to even think about. 
And then if the bees get testy of this monster hive. 
I dunno.


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## johno (Dec 4, 2011)

Shucks I would like to run my colonies with zero queens right now as my 6 week flow is over without black locust flowering this year as they were frosted in mid to late April. So I am looking at a low honey crop and a dearth that goes on and on until next spring and somebody told me that beekeeping was fun.


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## Tumbleweed (Mar 17, 2021)

Fivej said:


> It's hard to get yourself psyched to inspect a tall stack.
> Good luck. J


Best laugh I had all day 🤣


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