Can I hold an extra queen over the winter

[Deleted]

We have 5 hives, but 2 of them have old queens. I intended to get them to make new queens this summer, but didn't get it done. However, I did requeen one, and they apparently had an extra queen as we lost a swarm from that hive in August (Ugh). Through a strange series of events, we got the swarm back. It had dwindled to a pretty small band of bees, but they have a good laying queen who is now doing well in a nuk.

This little hive needs to be combined with one of the others, but I wondered if I can use a queen excluder to hold both queens over the winter in order to optimize my chances of having two of the three queens suited for a good build up. I am a bit concerned that even if a queen excluder kept the queens apart, the bees may kill the new, young queen. I don't want to lose her and would prefer to dispatch the old queen if it is unlikely I can keep them both into the spring.

Any input regarding the wisdom of leaving both queens in the hive would be appreciated.

[drew]

I bit late for an answer but will toss one out for others who may have same question. Good question by the way.

More then likely this will not work for multiple reasons.

1. You are trying to set up and artificial 2 queen hive (yes about 10% of hives ?? in nature?? run with 2 queens during the honey months generally a mother daughter set-up) which is a huge challenge in itself

2. IF you DID get past that 1st challenge you would be expecting the hive to run as 2 units separated by queen excluder. More then likely this will not happen, wherever the bees cluster for winter up or down that is the queen that will be taken care of leaving the other out in the cold (so to speak) .

[apis]

Ladybee - what did you end up doing with your hives/old queen?