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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 12 Feb 2004 10:38:39 -0600
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Hello Dave & All,
Dave said:
 Supercedure does not guarantee that the old queen will be disposed of and
it is possible for her to live several years alongside a daughter and on a
small number of occasions a grandaughter as well.

Dave and many others on the list have said the above many times.

From my personal experience I see the above as a very very rare occurrence
at least in the bees we use in the U.S..

We requeen on a regular basis. At times up to four beekeepers finding and
dispatching old queens.
We do not install a new queen until the old queen has been dispatched.
If another queen is in the hive then usually the new caged queen is killed
in the cage. The method I use to install new queens lets me know for sure
when two queens were in the hive . My guess would be one in around 200 hives
has two laying queens.

Even my two queen hives which were combined into the main honey flow end up
with only one queen in spring. At least 90 percent of the time the top
queen.

Do others find that when two hives are combined and the top queen is marked
a different color that the top queen almost always is the survivor in
spring?

I do not doubt Dave's observations and only adding mine because they are
different than Dave's observations.

Many beekeepers methods do not allow for knowing if two queens were in the
hive but my method does.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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