Two Queens in a Hive
The concept of having two queens in a single beehive might seem paradoxical to our traditional understanding of bee colonies. As per common knowledge, a hive typically houses one queen bee, the mother to all other bees in the colony. She is the pivotal character, with worker bees diligently maintaining the hive, collecting food, and caring for the brood while the drones' sole purpose is to mate with the queen.
However, there are instances where a hive may temporarily have two queens, particularly during the process of supersedure or swarming.
Supersedure: This process comes into play when the current queen is failing, perhaps due to age or disease. The worker bees sense this and raise a new queen. There's a brief period during the supersedure process when both the old queen and the newly emerged queen coexist. They might even lay eggs side by side for a short time. Eventually, the old queen is usually killed or driven away.
Swarming: Swarming is a natural process of colony expansion where the old queen and about half of the worker bees leave their original hive to establish a new one. Before they depart, they raise a new queen for the remaining bees. Again, there might be a brief overlap when both the old and new queens are present in the hive. The old queen departs with the swarm shortly after the new queen emerges.
While these are usual circumstances for two queens to share a hive, it's typically a transitory state. The natural order of a hive tends towards having one queen. Having two queens coexist in a stable, long-term manner is an exception rather than the norm and can be a result of careful beekeeping manipulations. This is called "two-queen system" beekeeping, and it's designed to increase the hive's productivity by increasing the worker population. However, managing such a system is more complex and requires advanced beekeeping skills.
Remember, while bee colonies are fascinating, they are also complex, and their behaviour can depend on numerous environmental factors, genetic factors, and beekeeping practices.
