[Clayton Huestis]

Trying something new this year. End of June I pulled a few frames of brood and the queen and placed on top of colony on its own BB facing opposite direction. Notched the bottom colony OTS style. Today is day 14 , so went to check return on mating flights (ya a few days early). Got 3 unsure (saw the virgins/ queens though), and all the rest are mated. My question is; How long should I wait before adding news paper and excluder to make the 2 units into a 2 queen setup for fall build up? I'm worried if I do it too soon before the queens come into full lay that they could squeeze threw the excluder. Allot of the queens have only a silver dollar worth of eggs. Thoughts? Planning on pulling the old queens and over wintering them in 4 frame side by side nucs rather then pinching them as most are in there second year.

 

[crofter]

I have not run them long as a 2 queen setup. Both queens should ideally be nearly same status, so I think you would want to wait till the new queens are fully up to speed laying.

I also was using double screen board instead of the solid you are using, so not a very close experience. Never had to worry about the newspaper and excluder as the combines were seamless.

 

[Gray Goose]

As the top queens hive has thier own entrance, do you plan to have one post join so they come and go as they have been.

Once the bottom queens are "laying" you can join them, I used 2 excluders, wood bound to join, with or with out a super in between

GG.