1st year beekeeper - 2 Queens??

543 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Wiland, May 21, 2020

Wiland

Discussion Starter · May 21, 2020

Hello All,

I’m a first year beekeeper in Michigan. Due to COVID I’m missing my bee meetings and have some questions. Here goes....I installed my package on April 4th into a medium 8 frame hive with pollen patties and a top hive feeder. On May 1st, I added another box and refilled the sugar water. Due to weather, I couldn’t get into the hive again until today. The top feeder was empty and the bees were building comb with brood in the center space. I’ve removed the feeder. I was wondering if I should clean it and refill it or leave it off? There was also other burr comb with brood in it which I removed. I saw the Queen and lots of activity. The second box had 3 outer frames empty, 2 middle frames had some activity and the center 3 were full. I was wondering when I should add another box. While I was looking through the photos I managed to take today, I think I have found another Queen!?!? Is this possible? Could she just have moved? Is one not a Queen? What do I do? I didn’t see any swarm or Queen cells on inspection (that I could tell). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Gray Goose

· #2 · May 21, 2020

Wiland said:
Hello All,

I’m a first year beekeeper in Michigan. Due to COVID I’m missing my bee meetings and have some questions. Here goes....I installed my package on April 4th into a medium 8 frame hive with pollen patties and a top hive feeder. On May 1st, I added another box and refilled the sugar water. Due to weather, I couldn’t get into the hive again until today. The top feeder was empty and the bees were building comb with brood in the center space. I’ve removed the feeder. I was wondering if I should clean it and refill it or leave it off? There was also other burr comb with brood in it which I removed. I saw the Queen and lots of activity. The second box had 3 outer frames empty, 2 middle frames had some activity and the center 3 were full. I was wondering when I should add another box. While I was looking through the photos I managed to take today, I think I have found another Queen!?!? Is this possible? Could she just have moved? Is one not a Queen? What do I do? I didn’t see any swarm or Queen cells on inspection (that I could tell). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Concur, Both those pictures contain a Queen.
Where in Mich are you , Kindly add your location it helps for advise.
if you are south of Mt Pleasant , feeding would not be mandatory any more, If you are in the UP I would continue to feed. If adding only foundation or FL frames then some feed would help with build out.

Let them roll, IF you have 2 Queens, when you hit , 3 medium 8 frame boxes of bees you could split the hive in 2, or just let it ride.
If you split, I would take 4 frames from each box , from the same side , left or right, move to a new set of 3 boxes, center the bees, add 2 to each side , make sure each has a queen.
keep in mind a 2 queen hive will grow, fast and big, I have 1 queen hives get head high in a summer, on 8 frame, so hopefully you have some boxes, like 8-10.

Next time in pay close attention, and see if you really have 2 or seen 1 --2 times.

GG

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grozzie2

· #3 · May 21, 2020

Wiland said:
While I was looking through the photos I managed to take today, I think I have found another Queen!?!? Is this possible? Could she just have moved? Is one not a Queen? What do I do?

If you look carefully at the two photos, count stripes from the tip of the abdomen, third stripe is a lighter color, very distinct. You will see the same distinct stripe in both photos. My thoughts are, it's the same queen that has moved.

What to do, I would do nothing.

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Wiland

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 21, 2020

Gray Goose said:
Concur, Both those pictures contain a Queen.
Where in Mich are you , Kindly add your location it helps for advise.
if you are south of Mt Pleasant , feeding would not be mandatory any more, If you are in the UP I would continue to feed. If adding only foundation or FL frames then some feed would help with build out.

Let them roll, IF you have 2 Queens, when you hit , 3 medium 8 frame boxes of bees you could split the hive in 2, or just let it ride.
If you split, I would take 4 frames from each box , from the same side , left or right, move to a new set of 3 boxes, center the bees, add 2 to each side , make sure each has a queen.
keep in mind a 2 queen hive will grow, fast and big, I have 1 queen hives get head high in a summer, on 8 frame, so hopefully you have some boxes, like 8-10.

Next time in pay close attention, and see if you really have 2 or seen 1 --2 times.

GG

Thanks so much for the good advice. Will definitely keep better track next time. I live in Lansing, so the weather should be nice from here on out although we are having lots of rain.

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Wiland

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 21, 2020

Good eye! Thanks. I’m going to assume I have one fast moving Queen

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1st year beekeeper - 2 Queens??

Wiland

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