2 marked queens in one hive!

[LeonardS]

I had a hive that lost its queen so I bought a queen less nuc with 5 frames of brood and eggs and bees. I put two frames of brood and the existing bees in one brood box with a new marked/caged queen. I installed the other three frames of brood, eggs and bees in another brood box with another marked/caged queen. This was all done on June 29th. Yesterday I checked one hive and couldn't find a queen but the hive had lots of bees and capped honey. No eggs and not much capped brood.

This morning I checked the frames in the second hive and both marked queens were on the same frame, about 3 inches apart. The queen from the first hive found her way into the second hive. Now what do I do? I'm a first year beekeeper so I don't know how to proceed with this one. Help!

[gmcharlie]

Catch one before they fight. put her in the box with no queen and seal it up for a cpl days (air flow but no bee movment... that should give her time to decide its home.

[LeonardS]

How would I catch her without injuring her?

[Graperunner]

This is what I would do, go back in and when the queens are on seperate frames. move the frame she is on back to the queenless nuc . I am assumeing that the queens are both laying and you have not combined with your queenless hive.

A queenless nuc will accept a laying queen with out caging her.

[Charlie B]

Good advice from Graperunner. In the future, spend $3.50 and buy a queen catcher. (HD100)
You can practice on drones until you get comfortable catching queens.

http://www.mannlakeltd.com/beekeepin...49.html#HD-100

[LeonardS]

Thanks guys! I will give it a try today.

[beemandan]

Remember, this time of year bees must have access to water to cool the hive.
By the way...how far apart are these hives?
If you are concerned about the queen leaving the new hive....maybe use a queen excluder to keep her in. That way the workers can continue to collect water.

[LeonardS]

The hives are only about 3 feet apart. I don't have a queen excluder so I am going to try to move one frame with one queen and leave the other alone. What do I do if both queens are still on the same frame?

[LeonardS]

I couldn't find the second queen today but there are two queen cells with open bottoms in the queen less hive. Do you think they raised a queen or are trying to? I put a frame of brood and eggs in the queen less hive so we will see what happens.

[KQ6AR]

I would pick her up with you're fingers, & put her in a queen cage.
Introduce her like you would introduce a new store bought queen.