Subject: The Multi Queen Environment

From: [email-masked] (JEngasCaT)
Date: 5 Jul 1995 14:17:09 -0400

Has anyone else used a two queen or more system with a minimal use of
minipulation and/or supervision?  Please post or email. Thanx.

-Jengas

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From: [email-masked] (Aaron Morris)
Date: Thu, 06 Jul 95 07:17:02 EDT

>minipulation and/or supervision?  Please post or email. Thanx.
 
I'm in the middle of such an experiment.  I started a split on a hive in
April, and rather than moving the split off to another site I left it on
top of the original hive and have been running a two queen hive.  But I
can't say that there has been "minimal manipulations".  In fact, I doubt
I will try this again.  The hive is now well over my head (I'm six feet
tall) and hefting the top supers is a real chore and quite dangerous on
a step ladder.
 
I must say that the hive is producing copious amounts of honey (three
medium supers, three shallow supers and one deep) while my other hives
have not been producing nearly as much, but I'm not sure that the labor
is worth it.  I've been following the procedures outlined in
_The_Hive_and_the_Honeybee_ ('92 edition), which violate the minimal
manipulation/supervision clause above.  The procedures call for routine
switching of the brood chambers throughout the honey flow.  Unstacking
the hive requires a step ladder for the first three supers, and heavy
lifting over my head just to get to the first brood chamber (1 deep and
1 medium super) which I must set aside and unstack three more supers to
get to the bottom brood chamber (the original hive, two deeps).  To
further complicate matters, even though I used queen excluders to
confine the queens in both brood chambers, somehow the top queen got into
the honey supers.  I assume this happened while I was
unstacking/restacking the hive.  Once I discovered that the queen was
into the honey supers I tried keeping her there by putting a full super
above and below the supers in which she was laying.  The capped honey
supers did NOT confine her where she was, because she crossed over them
and started laying in newly added supers that contained foundation only!
And in the meantime, the bees continue to bring in more and more nectar
and I need to add more supers (gotta get a higher step ladder!) and I
find myself running low on spare honey supers (had to buy a lot of five
and assemble, paint, etc) in a rush.  I admit I was not prepared to
manage such a massive production of honey!  The last time I was shaking
around on the top of the step ladder I swore that I'd never again
attempt to manage such a hive.  I'd rather be managing two normal hives
with three supers each rather that being driven by this monster!  But
it's producing in a manner I have never seen in my 20 years of keeping
bees!
 
If I ever try this again I will be very careful to make sure
that the queens remain confined in their respective brood chambers, I
will have MANY extra honey supers waiting in the wings, and I will have
to do something to make the unstacking/restacking easier - perhaps
locate the hive next to my house so I can work the top from a second
story window!  This hive is truely a monster!  It stands about 9 feet
and I anticipate harvesting three hundred pounds or more by seasons end.
But it is major work compared to running a normal hive.  To quote the
raven, "Never more, never more!"
 
Aaron Morris - thinking two queens is one too many!