Today during inspection of hives I found a situation i have encountered before. Full hive and fine a queen cell, and lots of queen cups (all but one empty). This hive is getting large and I'd like to make it a honey producer. In any case, I don't want it to swarm.
I used the something like the Demaree method to set up a double queen hive situation. From the bottom up, this is what I have: two deep boxes of brood, QE, one medium super, QE, one deep with 4 frames pulled from the deeps below (with the cell), empty comband some with honey, and a couple of frames of foundation, and then inner cover (with opening) and outer cover. The new queen will emerge, and the two hives should, in theory, operate together.
I've never had a double queen hive before. Anything I should or should not do?
Reading some other stuff just now, I'm wondering if that cell is in fact a supersedure cell. It was low on the frame, but not the absolute bottom. Not the classic area for a supersedure cell, but now I realize it could be. It was I believe the only queen cell, though one of the cups Maybe I should reassemble as it was? Hmmmm.
I used the something like the Demaree method to set up a double queen hive situation. From the bottom up, this is what I have: two deep boxes of brood, QE, one medium super, QE, one deep with 4 frames pulled from the deeps below (with the cell), empty comband some with honey, and a couple of frames of foundation, and then inner cover (with opening) and outer cover. The new queen will emerge, and the two hives should, in theory, operate together.
I've never had a double queen hive before. Anything I should or should not do?
Reading some other stuff just now, I'm wondering if that cell is in fact a supersedure cell. It was low on the frame, but not the absolute bottom. Not the classic area for a supersedure cell, but now I realize it could be. It was I believe the only queen cell, though one of the cups Maybe I should reassemble as it was? Hmmmm.