2 queens in hive

[rickyd20]

Today I found 2 queens in one of my hives, and I am not sure whether I should remove one, or just let them get on with it.
This was a queen I purchased and introduced to a queenless hive. I had assumed they had rejected her, as they started building QCs from her first brood, plus I couldn't find eggs. But today I saw she was still alive and well, along with the new queen they raised.

Should I remove the old one, or just leave them both in there? I figured they might do eachother damage if I left them both in. I thought other people might have experience with this.

 

[protheroe]

Leave them to it.I have had 2 young queens still there in spring and then used one as a spare but usually the bees will get rid of one by then.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Leave them to it.I have had 2 young queens still there in spring and then used one as a spare but usually the bees will get rid of one by then.

They're obviously not happy with the original queen so are superseding her, the bonus for you is that at the moment you have two queens laying up a good stock of bees for the winter. They'll eventually keep the best one and sort out the other themselves without any help from you

 

[For want of a better word]

I have one hive with 2 Amm queens... one marked red and yellow... other other yellow and red, sisters they seem to get on well together, on double brood + 1/2... second season and seem happy with the hive... gave me six full supers of honey this season... long may they live!


Yeghes da

 

[rickyd20]

That would be awesome, to have 2 laying queens next spring. Surely that hive would be a boomer. Hope it works out like that.

Just out of curiosity, why do the 2 queens not try to hunt eachother? I thought the instinct of a virgin was to kill all her rivals.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

It happens more often than people think.

A daughter will often leave the mother alone, if it's supercedure.
At Manchester BKA we've had a 5year old queen and her 2015 offspring, in an observation hive, for several months now.

The trouble is, we expect to see the original queen in the hive, usually marked, so we don't look for, and overlook, a second queen. And once having seen the marked queen, we don't see another.

I've seen it a couple of times this season. The bees sort it out.

Dusty