Two queens?

[Mellifera Crofter]

My two Aberdeen hives each overwintered on a brood box and a shallow with honey. I visited them on Wednesday, the 11th, and brushed all the bees from the shallows into the brood boxes and separated the boxes with queen excluders.

I visited them again yesterday and saw the queen in the brood box in the first hive and seven queen cells in the shallow that I had to destroy as I wasn't prepared for seeing queen cells. (It started to get cold and rainy last week, so I did not inspect this hive thoroughly.)

It's the second hive that I found confusing: I saw eggs in the shallow and in the brood box. How is that possible? Are there two queens in the hive, or only one very slim queen that can move through the queen excluder? If there are two queens in the hive, then that's how they must have overwintered because I can't see how the daughter can be from this year as there weren't any queen cells (and I did inspect this hive properly last week as well as this week) and, if I did miss one, not enough time for her to have been mated.

I removed the queen excluder and decided that, if there are two queens, they have to sort themselves out. I didn't know what else to do.

Kitta

[Jon]

It is much more likely to be a queen getting through the excluder than two queens imho but you could not rule that out 100%
Two queens can overwinter in the one colony. I have not never seen that in any of mine but it is reported often enough.
If it is a supersedure, they will get rid of the older queen at some stage.

What you saw in the first box is the basis of a queenright queen rearing system. When you separate part of the brood from the queen the bees will invariably make some queen cells due to lack of queen pheromone. Some call it footprint pheromone as it is spread as the queen walks over the comb. If there were no queen cells in the brood box where the queen was I would not conclude that the colony wanted to swarm.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thank you very much for two interesting answers, Jon. I'm feeling more at ease again.

I knew about the importance of queen pheromone - but did not know about the importance of her 'footprint'. Now I understand why only the shallow had queen cells. I suppose this should not happen again unless they now carry eggs up from the brood box to the shallow.

I'm also happy about the 'two queens' situation. The bees seemed happy enough. They were very calm.

Kitta

[Adam]

Now I understand why only the shallow had queen cells. I suppose this should not happen again unless they now carry eggs up from the brood box to the shallow.

Kitta
It does happen. I have seen a charged queencell in a super. (Middle of a frame directly above the brood nest). I have also (last week) seen drone larvae just above the queen excluder. (Quite full Carniolan colony). Laying worker or moved eggs I wonder?