Hello all -
 
   I am new to the list and already appreciate the variety of topics that
people discuss.  I have been keeping four beehives at my organic vegetable
farm for about five years now (mainly for pollination of raspberries and
cucurbit crops), and this year I've decided to put more effort into managing
my bees for honey production, as well as have some fun with learning more
about my bees.  I have some questions about two-queen hives - I apologize if
this subject has been discussed recently.
 
   I have read some recent articles that mention two-queen hives and would
like to experiment with this on two of my hives this year, but what I've
read so far has been woefully deficient in details.  I have overwintered my
hives with three deep hive bodies each, and my plan so far is to divide the
colonies vertically with a queen excluder and then introduce a new queen
into the portion that ends up without a queen (as well as move some brood if
necessary).
 
   My questions are:
 
  1). Is my plan an appropriate way to create a two-queen hive?
 
  2). How long should the hive have two queens?  I was planning to keep two
queens only part-way through the main honey-flow, but I'm not sure at what
point to remove the older queen.  I have read that the benefits of the
two-queen hive is a larger force for foragers (which builds up before the
main honey flow begins), and this large force is only necessary during the
main honey flow - hence my plan to remove the second queen after the honey
flow begins.
 
  3). Once the two-queen hive is established, should I separate the two
halves of the hive with honey supers - that is, should I put honey supers on
top of the lower queen, followed by the upper queen, then topped with more
honey supers?  I have read that if the two queens are separated only by a
queen excluder that they will spend most of their time trying to fight each
other.
 
  4) Finally, does the presence of two queens in the hive before and during
the main honey flow reduce swarming?
 
I am sure that there are disagreements on the advantages and disadvantages
of two-queen hives, and a discussion of the merits of two-queen hives would
be great, but right now I am especially interested in some practical how-to
information.  I'd also be interested in titles of any books or articles that
give management info on two-queen hives.
 
Thank you!
 
David Hougen-Eitzman
Big Woods Farm
Nerstrand, MN. USA