On 1-May-11, at 11:08 AM, randy oliver wrote:

>> The queens are in side by side single bottom boxes. Both have a  
>> green drone
> brood frame. On top of the boxes with queens above an excluder, are  
> the
> honey supers, half over one queen's brood box and half over the over.
>
>   If you have much experience with it, I'd be very happy to
> hear your observations as to the benefits and drawbacks.
>

Hi Randy Malcolm and all

I tried this idea several years ago.  We called it the 'McRory hive'  
after Doug McRory our Provincial Apiarist at the time who suggested  
the idea to us.  The small lids that Malcolm mentioned had to have  
some way of sealing against rain as the water ran down the pile of  
supers and dripped into the broodnest.  Because the queen excluder  
spanned part of the two hives, it couldn't be removed to inspect one  
hive without having a cover over the second.  As a result, only the  
outside 4-5 frames could be inspected without a lot of extra messing  
around. I don't remember the production but I don't think it was much  
more than what each of the hives could have produced alone.  I would  
remember because I often get hives high enough to need a stepladder  
to get the supers down.  If this configuration was as good as  
promised I would have needed the ladder there permanently.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W

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