Two Queen Hive

[justgojumpit]

I'm thinking about setting up this two queen hive: Does anyone have any ideas for modifications to make things work better? Thanks!

http://www.ezprints.com/image.asp?thumbpath=http://www.ezprints.com/Album/images/0/16204652_img.jpg&width=768&height=512&title=Two-Queened%20Hive.jpg

If you need a code to get in, it is "bees"

justgojumpit

[Beth Kirkley]

I've never tried it, but have seriously considered it. I'd seen that hive you shown a drawing to - except what I saw was the actual built hive. It was what inspired me to build my unique hive.

This hive has a double brood box on the bottom that I think fits 24 frames (if I remember right).



And I can add as many boxes as I want to either the front or back of the brood box (or both).



That hive grew quite large last year, and was harvesting more honey than my other hive. It only has one queen. But anyway...... we ended up having a really rainy season and by the time I got back in the hive the bees had eaten most of the honey. If the weather stays nice this year, I really expect that hive to do better than my other hive. It just showed alot of potential.

Beth

[Michael Bush]

I don't think they are worth it.  I've tried several configurations and the next one won't require moving supers to get to the brood chambers.

Make a three box long hive with the brood chambers on the ends two queen excluders to divide it into thirds and stack the supers up on the middle.

Put a 3/8" hole in each brood chamber to let the drones out.  Put the entrance in the middle so both sides have to share the entrance to keep them mixed up.  Put a top entrance on the supers to handle the traffic.  It will be huges.  Be sure to set it up as early as you can get the queens and bees so it can maximize before the main flow.

It will be much easier to run three regular hives and get the same amount of honey

But it's a fun experiment that I've done before.

Warning:  that strong of a hive can be intimidating to work.  There are a LOT of bees.  And they are all on the same side.

[thegolfpsycho]

I've tried a two queen colony, and I agree with M Bush.  It can be a hassle.  In addition, I have a theory I can't prove, other than personal experience.  Big colonys are alot more defensive  I don't know if it's because the population is further from the queen and pheromones, or it is just strength in numbers, but they can get downright ornery if you have anything major to do.  Don't get me wrong, big strong colonys to maximize the crop is a goal we all should have.  I just feel that a two queen colony, with two very prolific queens, can quickly get out of hand.   I also had an issue with trying to stem the swarm impulse.  They wanted to go, and did so more often than I would have liked.