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Date: | Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:07:28 GMT |
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I'm usually a reader and not a writer but I saw the two queen discussion from a few months ago and would share my experieces. We converted 200+ colonies to side by side, 2-deep, screened bottom colonies 4 years ago. This winter we will change back to single deep- one queen colonies. These 2queen colonies are very difficult to maintain and keep queenright. If one side gets stronger, even marginally, these bees will go through the excluder and kill the other queen. If you don't use excluders this happens even faster. You first dicover this queenlessness when your supers only fill on one side. The workers do not mix in the supers but work exclusively above their queen. If these colonies swarm, they both swarm at the same time giving two swarms to deal with. We don't treat for mites but mite populations seem to be the same as a single queen hive. When these colonies are right though, they will produce honey at an alarming rate. Dealing with a colony of 100K bees can be a little daunting! Hey that wasn't so hard. I may try this again. Phil
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