[Seven Hills]

Thought I had lost a queen so I put another one in a week ago. Went to check on her and saw that I must have been blind and she was still there as well as her new friend, they are both laying and walk right next to each other. Can't wait to see how this goes.

 

[rhaldridge]

What an unusual photo!

 

[Dave Burrup]

We have had mothers and daughters in the fall like this, but I have never heard of it with an introduced queen. The old queen with the frayed wings will probably not last much longer. We have never had an old queen in a pairing come through the winter.
Dave

 

[burns375]

Neat. The old queen on the left don't look good. Her thorax has lost color. :-( How old is she?

 

[Michael Bush]

The queen on the left is a cordovan. She never had any "color".

 

[RayMarler]

I've had two queen hives, sometimes they swarm. I now split them up into two hives or nucs so I don't lose a swarm.

 

[merince]

Neat to see and unusual!

 

[Seven Hills]

Thank you Michael Bush. Neither queen are over a year old. They were weak hives but trying. When I brought all the bees back from the orchards I put them close to where I could watch them but one kept leaving her box and clustering in the gravel. I put her in a cage after the third or forth try in that box and put her frame in a nuc with a feeder and 2 other frames with a little honey. She seemed to like that box so I slowly add bees to help her. Brought another weak hive that still had good honey and got the crap robbed out of it. I grabbed a cage and got her out and put her in the top of the nuc on the feeder with a few bees. Looked a day later and could not find first queen. With only 50 bees in the whole box how did I miss her? Well I let the other queen out of her cage and they are laying eggs and I am just going to see how long this lasts. It has been 6 days now.

 

[Rader Sidetrack]

Advice commonly offered to those seeking tips on finding the queen is to look for workers all facing towards the queen.

Yet in the photo in post #1, the workers don't seem to show any particular interest in either of those dual queens. :s

Are the workers confused because there are two queens close to each other, or is there something else going on?

 

[burns375]

The queen on the left is a cordovan. She never had any "color".

O didn't know that. I've never seen a cordovan or a queen with a brown thorax

 

[Michael Bush]

It does seem like in the picture neither queen has an entourage. But it may be the queens just walked away from their retinue. When they stand still they tend to gather around them in a circle, but when the queen is moving she often walks away from them. I'd need more context to know if they have no retinue because they are failing or virgins or if it's because they just walked away from them.