Medium super with 2 frames removed |
Chewed newspaper in place |
The next box is the top deep box. It was pretty much empty with frames without comb and only a few bees hanging around.
Then, the bottom box. Lots of bees, as before. I had intended to take out the drone frame and replace it with a regular frame, but it had some capped honey and nectar in it. No capped brood or larvae, so I left it. This was just about the only honey in the hive. On the remaining frames was capped brood and larvae of various ages. Then I spotted the queen, fat and golden. All's well, I figured.
I put the boxes back on and inspected the medium super- very little honey, capped brood and larvae, and another queen! I have a two-queen hive! I put everything back together and went to look up what to do.
The two queens are separated by the empty deep box. I guess there are essentially two colonies in one hive. Beekeepers do make two-queen hives because they produce more honey at a lower cost. When this is done purposefully, they use a queen excluder to keep the queens apart. I also read that 10% of colonies will naturally have two queens, often in the spring.
I had wondered what I should do; nothing or remove one queen. It is clear that I should do nothing. The bees will figure it out themselves. In the meantime, I expect the colony(ies) will quickly enlarge. It needs to start making some honey stores.
I also hefted the top super on the old hive to check its weight (an indication of honey storage). It felt like only a few pounds. I'll check again in a week to see if it feels any heavier.
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