# When and why are there multiple queens in a swarm



## heaflaw (Feb 26, 2007)

Under what conditions are there multiple queens in a swarm? Is there a way to tell without spending a lot of time going through the bees? At what point do the queens kill each other off?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

That usually happens when Virgin queens are on mating flights. Seems as though they attract enough bees upon return to the apiary that they end up getting together as multiswarms. That has been my experience and observation.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Could be for several reasons. After swarms will sometimes have multiple virgins. And, one year in the orchard, many colonies swarmed on the same day. Swarms from each set, within the orchard, combined into massive swarms...obviously with multiple queens.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Michael Palmer said:


> And, one year in the orchard, many colonies swarmed on the same day. Swarms from each set, within the orchard, combined into massive swarms...obviously with multiple queens.


 I've had multiple same day swarms in a yard that coalesced into a massive swarm.....but when I looked around closely I found a couple of baseball sized swarms. I always figured that some of the later swarms were drawn to the first and their queens were left with a handful of workers. And I always supposed that the big collection had a single queen.....but never checked that closely.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Here is a account of what happens:

http://www.bushfarms.com/huber.htm#MultipleQueensInSwarm

Sometimes several virgin queens escape in the confusion of the swarm. Sometimes multiple swarms merge into one swarm.


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