(Another) first hive inspection -two queens?

[Ernest T. Bass]

Okay, so yesterday was my one-week first inspection! I've got two hives on foundationless frames.. They seem to be doing real good. No pics unfortunately, but I'm sure you guys can visualize it just fine... Pure white comb on almost every frame, some frames almost half full. Not many blossoms here yet, and they drank about a half gallon of syrup. Eggs--check! I could be wrong due to inexperience, but I think I may have seen two queens in one hive? There was a small cluster of bees under the top cover, and upon closer inspection I was almost sure I was looking at the queen in the center with her attendants surrounding, and then I coulda swore I saw another one on one of the frames! ???

At any rate, both hives were as developed as I could have hoped, and the foundationless frames are working beautifully! I was going to measure the cell size, but there were so many bees on each frame that I would have had to shake them off and I was afraid of damaging the new comb.. I'm thinking that I ought to put another box (all mediums here) on in about a week or two at this rate? Does that sound too soon?

Thanks,
Andrew

[Brian D. Bray]

The chances of finding 2 queens in a hive happens much  more frequently than people think.  Most don't spot 1 queen let alone 2.  But a mother/daughter combo in a hive is not unusual, especially during large honey flows.

[oldenglish]

Brian, does not sound like the hive is old enough to produce its own queen yet, could this be a case of the package having the extra queen in it when it was shipped ?

[Brian D. Bray]

Brian, does not sound like the hive is old enough to produce its own queen yet, could this be a case of the package having the extra queen in it when it was shipped ?

It's possible, but if so then both queens probably came from the same hive.  Queens from different hives don't work well together.  In my experience I've never seen a 2 queen hive that wasn't either mother/daughter or sister/sister.