2 queens

[nc_beekeeper]

Yesterday I decided to go through a couple of hives I had requeened recently to make sure the queens were doing ok. One hive I went through a few frames and spotted the marked queen I had purchased... just as I was about to put the frame back in I spotted another queen. Now I know 2 queens in one hive is not that uncommon but this is my first experience with it. This was a Carniolan hive that I requeened with a russian queen from redtractor1. The 2nd queen is most definitely half carni as she was a real dark queen. What are the bees intentions with making another queen? I really don't want them to kill my pretty russian queen.... I bought 3 queens from him and that is the only one that I actually got to take so I really hate to lose her.

[Ravenseye]

Well, usually they know something that you don't about the existing queen. When I get two queens in the hive, I just let it go and see what happens. Typically, the old queen is gone in a while. Last year, I had two in one hive until mid-August and then they took the old one out. Based on the amount of brood, you'd never know that there were two in there....it just looked like one good queen doing her job.

[tecumseh]

why not split and see what happens?

[nc_beekeeper]

that thought crossed my mind... was a little concerned it was to late in the year to do a split right now.

[Jeffzhear]

I just started my NUC's in the last few weeks and am way north of you. I would think you have time to split.

[Cyndi]

Hey NC,

I just split one of my hives last week. I found one of my Purvis queens in a box that the split didn't make it...I screwed up. Anyway, she was walking around the empty box all by herself, probably for almost an entire month. I caged her, then split another hive - that I found the queen immediately in. Waited a couple of hours and stuck her in the queenless box. Tomorrow I'm going to check and see if she was accepted or not...I hope. Otherwise that was a wasted $40. I thought it was pretty cool that I'd been given a second chance to make it right...at least 1 of them,

I had some extra honey and put a feeder on it. I'm sure there will be a good fall flow that will build them up pretty good before winter. Otherwise, I just plan of feeding and stealing frames from other hives.

[RayMarler]

If it was me I think I'd split them. That way, one could be a backup for the other incase one has probs thru the winter.

[nc_beekeeper]

Sounds like a split would be the best solution so that's what's I'll do this evening. Thanks for all the great advice!

[SCBEEKEEPER]

Good luck on the split. It sounds like the thing to do. I am splitting 2 this weekend and plan on feeding if necessary but with a few more strong hives it should be worth it, to me at least.