> I used to run Consolidated Double-Queen brood nests when I was
> pushing the bees into making section comb honey.  (This two-queen
> idea was covered by John A. Hogg in ABJ a few years ago.)
>
> In this system you have the usual two brood chambers, but have a
> queen laying in EACH ONE.  This allowed me to super with comb honey
> supers easily with great results.
 
<snip>
 
I might add that I ran all my colonies under this system about 20
years ago.
 
Everything he said is true, and the description of the methods are
excellent.
 
The only thing was that I never got any more honey, on average,
than with single queen colonies using the same amount of queens and
bees and equipment-- and often less.  There was a lot of extra
work and the hives got so high I needed a ladder.
 
And the swarms were immense.
 
The one real advantage was that they didn't need much wrapping for
wintering.  They were so strong that they wintered well.
 
But in the spring half the queens were lost, so there was need to
split back up.
 
As far as comb is concerned, I never did run them for that.  I
suppose they would be good, but I never had trouble getting single
queen units to work well, and they are much less work.
 
For one thing a single queen colony would often be as tall as I am,
and that with just one standard brood chamber -- and the rest being
Ross Rounds boxes.
 
Seeing as I was running about 1,000 boxes and there was a lot of
work in any method, I chose the simplest and the most efficient for
my area.  My *favourite* method was this:
 
Install a package, spread brood, and make sure the nest develops
laterally, then add comb foundation (two supers) when the colony
needs a second.  Keep adding boxes and reversing the comb supers.
 
This is really simple.  It has a young queen, rapid buildup, and
uniform populations between units.  Very few manipulations are
needed.  The only hitch comes when you need to work a flow that is
later than the time when a colony needs a second.  In that case,
an excluder and super can be put on for space and exchanged for comb
boxes when the flow starts.
 
My second favourite, which was more work, was to break two BC
colonies down to one when the time came to add the comb, and add the
comb boxes.  This was a little more productive, but used a big colony
and more labour.
 
 
 
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0
Internet:[log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.internode.net/~allend/>