Professional Documents
Culture Documents
May 1946
United States Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Administration
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine
TWO-QUEEN COLONY MANAGEMENT
By C. L. Farrar, Division of Bee Culture l/
1/
2/
- 2 -
- 3 -
Hive Equipment
In these tests on comparative yield, 10-frame Langstroth hive
equipment was used exclusively. Under the dry conditions existing
in the Intermountain States, 7 hive bodies gave adequate storage
space, provided the honey was removed and extracted weekly during
the main honey flow. Under the more humid conditions of the North
Central States, 8, 9, and sometimes 10 bodies were required to provide storage space for the thinner nectar. Hives 7 stories high can
be worked satisfactorily, but few beekeepers Will care to operate
8- to 10-story hives even if justified by the increase in yield.
In preliminary tests a shallow type of hive body for both brood
chambers and supers has been shown to have advantages when intensive
management practices are applied to either single- or two-queen
colonies. Shallow brood chambers came into disrepute because they
were used to restrict brood rearing in order to force most of the
honey into the supers. The wide use of 2-story brood chambers has
proved that hive capacity is far more important than the size or
shape of the brood frames. Even the beekeepers who prefer brood frames
deeper than standard now generally use either one and a half or two
deep brood chambers.
The size and shape of the hive unit has little effect on production
when sufficient space is provided for brood rearing, food reserves,
and the storage of surplus honey. Success is determined by the skill
of the operator in providing hive space for the colony at the right
time and in the right place.
Because of an expected improvement in stock, the use of two queens,
and the greater control- over colony development through the effective
use of pollen supplements or substitutes, changes in hive equipment
appear desirable. The size and design of the future hive unit will
eventually be determined by its adaptability and the ease with which
it can be used to produce maximum crops.
- 4 -
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Tj
- $ -
When laying queens are available in nuclei, a queen with her brood
and bees is united by the spray method to the upper unit when the
colony is divided. Queen acceptance is nearly 100 percent, and both
queens continue egg laying without interruption. The nuclei may be
restocked to provide replacement queens. Queens that show up poorly
in the nuclei should not be introduced to producing colonies.
1
Honey storage commences within and above the upper brood nest. The
lower colony tends to supply bees to the upper one, where honey storage
is dominant. Most of the colony's flight activity may be through the
auger holes of the upper brood chambers. Frequent interchanging of the
upper brood chambers permits the queen to expand her brood nest upward,
where she can use the space made available by emerging bees. It also
stimulates the removal of considerable honey surrounding the young brood
put down, thus making more space available for the queen when the brood
chambers are again interchanged. The movement of ripened honey from the
brood nest hastens the finishing of the supers so they can be extracted
and returned for refilling.
- 8 -
The upper queen can be maintained in her proper position without excluders by the timely rotation of the brood chambers. Most
of the mature brood is placed above to provide space for the queen
to expand her brood nest normally upward.
- 10 -
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