Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Keith13 on February 16, 2009, 10:42:51 AM

Title: Two queens in a hive
Post by: Keith13 on February 16, 2009, 10:42:51 AM
If there is an established queen in a hive. Then another queen is put in the hive inside a cage will the two pheromones mix and the unprotected queen be killed by the workers?

Keith
Title: Re: Two queens in a hive
Post by: Michael Bush on February 16, 2009, 12:23:11 PM
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "the two pheromones mix".  But the caged new queen will almost always be killed if the hive is queenright.
Title: Re: Two queens in a hive
Post by: Keith13 on February 16, 2009, 01:56:08 PM
Thanks Michael I was just wondering.

Keith
Title: Re: Two queens in a hive
Post by: ArmucheeBee on February 16, 2009, 03:20:06 PM
Are you putting the caged queen in to keep her alive?  or.... Are you putting her in to release her, not knowing there is a queen in the hive?  Without a queen excluder the hives' queen would attempt to kill the queen in the cage.
Title: Re: Two queens in a hive
Post by: Keith13 on February 16, 2009, 03:47:24 PM
Really I was wondering why people go through all the trouble of introducing queens the hard way. If you could just put them in and the workers would kill the old queen then open up the new queen. It would make life so much easier :roll:

Keith
Title: Re: Two queens in a hive
Post by: Michael Bush on February 16, 2009, 09:48:48 PM
>It would make life so much easier

Bees don't seem to be into making our life easier...