Queen buddies

[dickm]

Hi folks,
There's an exception to every rule. (Perhaps even this one?) I peopled my OB hive from a failing hive that wintered over. I assumed a poor queen and wanted her for my hive because she wouldn't swarm. There are 2 palm sized patches of brood on each side one frame of a 3 frame hive. The other day I noticed that there were 2 queens in it. They may be related but one is black and the other is yellow. I would have seen a queen cell. At first they were on opposite side of the comb.

"If I watch long enough I may see them fight", I thought. Then I saw them both on the same side. As they drew closer, I got ready for the match. They just walked by each other. They both lay. In fact I saw one laying while the other stood by her head. Have seen them just hanging out together.

Dickm

[briancady413]

I wonder if both are genetically tolerant of other queens' presense. What a neat observation.

[John Russell]

I think that the failing queen no longer exudes her cocktail of phermones and thus is not considered a threat, or isn't recognized as a queen by other bees. This seems to happen in superseedure cases where the old queen ends up petering out and eventually just dies,( or leaves the hive to die ) but not nessisarily before laying eggs for a number of days. It is considered a possibility that the "old" queen could still have weeks on even months of productive life left, just at a diminished level. However the attention of attendants decreases, and as a result the old queen starves.
Intresting theory anyway.
Did both queens have attendents?

The gfreatest thing about beekeeping is that you learn somthing everytime you crack a lid.

John Russell

[dickm]

Actually, I did notice that one gets more attention. Haven't noticed feeding but they touch her and lick her. The other is somewhat ignored. I saw her laying and tried to see if there was an egg there. I couldn't see one but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. This (black) queen looks in better shape. Perhaps she's the new queen but just hasn't gotten up to speed. I'm not at all sure this is a supercedure.

Dickm