2 Queens!!!

[jeeper038]

I just did an inspection of one of my hives and I found 2 queens. This hive was a package installed May 9th 08. They almost have the 2nd brood chamber filled and are doing great. The first frame I looked at I found an unmarked queen and thought that they had swarmed without me knowing. Then I flipped the frame over and I found my marked queen. Also, I just captures a swarm 2 days ago and that hive is about 5 feet away from the 2 queen hive. The unmarked queen is bigger than my marked queen.
Questions: What happened or what is going on? What should I do? Could my swarms queen have gotten in somehow?

[pgmrdan]

From the reading I've done this isn't that rare of a situation. Usually the keeper finds a queen and stops looking so he/she never notices a second or even a third queen in the hive.

Speculation is that when there are two queens that many times it's a mother-and-daughter situation.

They may set up what are basically 2 colonies in one hive.

[AstroBee]

Chances are very high that this just a natural replacement of the queen that came in the package. This happens very frequently with packages. I'd do nothing with this hive - just leave them alone.

[beyondthesidewalks]

They may set up what are basically 2 colonies in one hive.

And do they make a bunch of honey in one hive! I hope you're taking full advantage of the situation and that nature is cooperating with some rain.