Two-Queen Tower Hives?

While it’s just few weeks until spring, outside temperatures are still too cold to do much in the beeyard, other than administer sugar syrup to hives that need it and on the days when the sun comes out, watch workers forage in the yellow holly blossoms out back (right photo).

This is also a good time to think about the coming year. One hive management technique that I’ve always wanted to try is the two-queen system and its promise of better honey yields. The system, described nicely in The Beekeeper's Handbook, employs three deeps stacked on top of each other. The queens are separated from each other by an excluder, and depending on the time of year, one or more supers. The biggest problem with this setup is that the extra deep creates an awfully tall hive, which makes pulling heavy supers off the top tricky and labor intensive.

The January issue of Bee Culture looks at an alternate approach to the two-queen system that also makes varroa management a snap. Basically you push two hives together and center supers on top. The exposed sides are capped with half covers, so instead of pulling everything off the hive to address the drone frames, just lift the side covers for access to the outer drone frame.

From the photo, it looks like the first super includes a ventilation hole that probably also works as an access port for the bees. Most of the literature I've read about two-queen systems suggests that populations in such hives tend to be greater, which accounts for the greater honey yield. My thinking is that this arrangement will address my biggest frustration at honey harvest, which is the large number half filled supers and frames in each hive (usually the top super). Having twice the number of bees working on a given set of supers should reduce this problem of partially-filled supers by half. Time permitting I hope to give this a try this spring.