This is a follow up on a thread I started about a month ago regarding
operating a two queen colony.  As a quick recap: I had a shallow super
brood chamber with a laying queen, over which there were three supers
containing Ross Round Section Comb Honey frames.  I attempted to
sandwich between the second and third honey supers another shallow
super brood chamber with another laying queen.  Both shallow super brood
chambers had queen excluders to keep the queens separated.  I was trying
to establish a two queen colony to maximize bee production and hence to
maximize the round section comb production.  Successful section comb
production requires a very populous hive to crowd the bees into the
section equipment, which the bees work reluctantly if there are more
open, less confined spaces available to them.
 
At last report I had not examined the hive to see how blissful was the
forced marriage between the two queens, and I have not reported since, as
I've been on vacation.  Upon my next examination I was unable to find
the queen in the sandwiched super, although there were plenty of larvae
and sealed brood, which I took as a good sign.  It was clear however
that when I examined again, the queen in the sandwiched super was no
longer present.  Fortunately, the queen in the original brood chamber
was alive and laying.  Long live the queen!
 
Although this was the end of the experiment, it was not the end of the
experience.  I left the second shallow brood chamber between the second
and third comb honey supers to let the brood hatch, hoping to augment
the colony's population.  Problems arose as the new bees emerged.  Since
there was no queen laying in the brood chamber, the vacated cells were
more to the bees liking for honey production than were the round section
supers.  By the time most of the bees had hatched out, honey production
had moved out of the section equipment and almost exclusively into the
now queenless brood super.  To deal with this I removed the top section
comb super (it had never even been occupied, so it went back to the
storage shed).  I removed the queenless brood super which was about a
third to a half full of honey in only a week!.  I shook the bees off
each frame onto the ground in front of the hive and gave the queenless,
beeless super to another colony to finish filling.
 
It's now almost two weeks since the last manipulations and the colony
has fully occupied both of the remaining section comb supers and in
fact, if the flow keeps up as it has been going I may need to put the
third section comb super back on the hive this weekend.  Had it not been
for the honey produced in the vacated brood super I thing the bees would
already have been well into all three section comb supers.
 
While I was doing all this experimenting, I ordered and read Killion's
"Honey in the Comb".  It's a great reference for section comb honey
production and next year I'll try doing it by the book.  As far as a
two queen colony goes, it didn't work for me.  I may experiment with the
idea again some time in the future, but the experiment is over for this
year.
 
I hope this has been interesting to the readers of this forum.
Aaron Morris - "I think, therefore I bee!"