Kevin Palm wrote:
 
>Last Sunday, due to my own negligence and procrastination in taking the
>appropriate actions, my two hives swarmed.  I have two Buckfast hives,
>one in three deeps, both having queen excluders and two supers on.  My
>question is this:  my two hives produced three simultaneous swarms!!  I
>haven't been in to check the queen cells yet (nasty weather and too
>busy), but is it possible that I had two queens in one of my hives
>without knowing it??  From everything I've read, the new virgins don't
>hatch out until appx. a week after the primary swarm has issued (I heard
>"piping" in both my established hives last night, so I assume the new
>queens have arrived).  It just doesn't make sense to me.  Can someone
>enlighten me??
 
Swarming is controlled by the entire hive population - if this is extremely
high the bees are not averse to sending out swarms with virgin queens -
increasing the chances of gene survival.  This may happen simultaneously or
within a few days after the primary swarm.  Sometimes the secondary swarm is
too small to be viable or accompanied by more than one of the newly hatched
queens. I heard one report of  finding 6 queens (presumably all virgins) in
a captured swarm.  These swarms can be very difficult to catch since even
one queen left outside the cluster will attract the swarm back to her location.
 
Betty McAdam
HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
j.h. & e. mcadam<[log in to unmask]
http://kigateway.eastend.com.au/hogbay/hogbay1.htm