View Full Version : Newspaper combine - with 2 queens.....
Steve C
06-05-2007, 11:56 AM
What would happen when you think you have a queenless hive(but there is a queen in there) and you combine it with another hive that has a queen in the hive for sure........?
Usually one of them will die, but not always. You can easily have two queens in a hive for awhile.
Mike Gillmore
06-05-2007, 04:18 PM
Have you tried to put a frame with eggs into the suspect "queenless" hive? - Or have you already combined them?
I tryed combining once (with newspaper between) both hives had queens. It is now my strongest hive (out of 5) and I have only seen one queen since. (but I have trouble finding the queen so there might be two.) I think they duked it out and the best queen won.
Mike Gillmore
06-05-2007, 07:31 PM
I think they duked it out and the best queen won.
That's what usually happens, but my fear in this case would be that if there IS a defective queen in the suspect "queenless" hive, and she wins the fight, what will you end up with?
I would want to make absolutely sure that the "productive" queen stays in control after the combination.