Advanced Hive Management: Double Queens, Combining & Colony Manipulation

You have kept bees for several seasons. You can spot the queen in under a minute, read a brood pattern like a diagnostic chart, and manage swarming without breaking a sweat. But somewhere along the way, the standard playbook stopped covering every situation you encounter. A colony goes queenless in September. A nuc needs to build up fast enough to hit a pollination contract. Two weak hives are limping through August when one strong hive would overwinter beautifully.

That is where advanced hive management begins.

This guide covers the techniques that bridge the gap between competent hobbyist and skilled beekeeper: double-queen systems, combining colonies, queen banking, migratory considerations, and the sophisticated swarm prevention methods that keep large operations running smoothly. These are not parlor tricks. Every technique here solves a real problem you will face if you keep bees long enough.

When Basic Management Is Not Enough

Standard beekeeping advice works well for single-hive hobbyists managing five to ten colonies through a typical season. Inspect every seven to ten days. Add boxes when bees occupy seventy percent of the current ones. Requeen annually. Treat for mites. Harvest surplus honey.

But as your operation grows, or as seasonal conditions throw curveballs, you need a bigger toolkit:

The techniques in this guide assume you are comfortable with standard inspections, can identify eggs and larvae reliably, understand basic queen biology, and have worked through at least two full seasons. If any of those foundations feel shaky, review our guides on inspections and queen management before proceeding.

Double-Queen Systems

What Is a Double-Queen Hive?

A double-queen hive houses two laying queens in a single colony structure, separated by one or more queen excluders so they cannot reach each other. Each queen maintains her own brood nest, but the workers from both sides intermingle in the honey supers above.

The result is a colony with roughly twice the foraging population, which translates directly into higher honey yields. Commercial operators regularly report forty to sixty percent more honey from double-queen colonies compared to singles in the same apiary.

Key Insight: Double-queen systems do not double your honey. Worker bees from both queens share the same foraging territory, so there are diminishing returns. But the boost is substantial, and the colony builds up faster in spring.

Vertical vs. Horizontal Configuration

There are two primary ways to set up a double-queen hive:

Vertical (Stacked) Configuration

This is the most common and practical approach for Langstroth equipment.

      [ Honey Supers ]      <- Workers from both queens mix freely
      [ Queen Excluder ]
      [ Upper Brood Box ]    <- Queen #2 lives here
      [ Queen Excluder ]
      [ Double Screen Board ]  <- Separates queens, allows heat sharing
      [ Lower Brood Box ]    <- Queen #1 lives here
      [ Bottom Board ]

The double screen board (also called a division board) is the critical component. It has screen on both sides with a thin wooden frame between them, creating an air gap. Pheromones cannot pass through easily, so the queens remain unaware of each other, but heat can transfer, which helps both colonies thermoregulate.

Horizontal (Side-by-Side) Configuration

Two brood nests sit next to each other in a specially modified long hive or twin-nuc box, separated by a vertical divider with screen. Honey supers sit above both sides. This approach is less common but preferred by some beekeepers who find vertical stacks too tall and unstable.

Excluder Setup Details

Getting the queen excluder configuration right is essential. If a queen passes through an excluder she should not, you will have a fight on your hands, and one queen will die.

1. Between lower brood box and screen board: No excluder needed if the screen board opening is small enough. Some screen boards have a built-in entrance for the upper colony.
2. Between upper brood box and honey supers: Standard queen excluder. This keeps both queens out of the honey.
3. Perimeter check: Before closing up, run your finger around every excluder edge. Gaps as small as a quarter inch are enough for a determined queen.

Setting Up a Double-Queen Hive

Timing

The best time to establish a double-queen system is during the spring build-up, four to six weeks before the main nectar flow in your area. This gives both colonies time to reach peak foraging strength when the flow hits.

Step-by-Step: Vertical Double-Queen Setup

What you need:

• Two strong single-story colonies with proven queens
• One double screen board with entrance
• Two queen excluders
• Additional brood boxes and frames
• Honey supers as needed
• A sturdy hive stand (the stack will be tall)

Procedure:

1. Select your colonies. Choose two strong hives with good queens. Ideally, both should have at least six frames of brood and be healthy with no signs of disease. Disposition matters too: two calm colonies are easier to manage than one hot and one gentle.

2. Prepare the lower unit. Move one colony to the hive stand where the double-queen will live. This becomes the lower brood box. Ensure the queen is present and laying well. Confirm her by spotting eggs or the queen herself.

3. Install the screen board. Place the double screen board directly on top of the lower brood box. Make sure the screen faces are intact with no tears. If the board has an upper entrance, note which direction it faces. This entrance serves the upper colony.

4. Add the upper brood box. Place a brood box with drawn comb or foundation on top of the screen board. Transfer four to five frames of brood, bees, and the queen from your second colony into this box. Fill remaining spaces with drawn comb.

5. Close the upper entrance temporarily. For the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours, close the upper entrance on the screen board. This confines the upper colony and forces them to orient to the new entrance when you open it. Use a small piece of foam or grass.

6. Add the queen excluder and supers. Once both colonies are established (about a week), add a queen excluder above the upper brood box and begin adding honey supers as needed.

7. Manage entrances. The lower colony uses the standard bottom entrance. The upper colony uses the entrance built into the screen board. Make sure both are unobstructed and face the same direction to reduce drifting.

Practical Tip: Mark your screen board clearly. Use a permanent marker to write "UP" on the top face. Installing it upside down defeats the ventilation design and can cause excess moisture problems.

Monitoring

Inspect each queen's brood nest separately. During a routine inspection, work through the upper brood box first, replace the excluder and supers, then remove them all to access the lower box via the screen board. This is the main drawback of vertical systems: a full inspection requires significant disassembly.

Check for these issues regularly:

• Queen loss in either unit. One-queen double systems become single queens quickly and waste space.
• Drifting. If foragers drift heavily to one side, one colony weakens.
• Swarming from either unit. Double-queen colonies are not immune to swarm impulse. Treat each unit independently for swarm management.

Combining Colonies

Why Combine?

Combining two colonies into one is one of the most powerful tools in advanced beekeeping. Common scenarios include:

• Weak colony in fall: A colony that will not survive winter alone can be combined with a stronger neighbor to preserve its resources and bees.
• Queenless colony: Rather than ordering a new queen for a queenless unit, combine it with a queenright colony.
• Failed nuc: A nucleus that failed to build up can be merged into a producing hive.
• Honey maximization: Two mediocre colonies sometimes produce more honey as one strong unit than as two weaker ones.

Essential Rule: You can never combine two queenright colonies directly without one queen being killed. Decide beforehand which queen you want to keep, and remove or dispatch the other before combining. The only exception is using a queen bank (see below).

The Newspaper Method

The newspaper method is the standard technique for combining colonies. It works by allowing the bees to gradually chew through a sheet of newspaper, mixing their colony odors over twenty-four to forty-eight hours. By the time the paper is gone, the bees accept each other as nestmates.

Step-by-step:

1. Choose which queen to keep. Evaluate both queens for age, performance, and temperament. Remove the queen you are eliminating. Ideally, dispatch her or move her to a queen bank if you want to preserve her.

2. Prepare the stronger colony. Open the stronger (or queenright) colony and set aside the inner cover and telescoping cover.

3. Lay down newspaper. Place a single sheet of newspaper flat across the top bars of the lower hive body. Use standard black-and-white newsprint, not glossy paper. Make two or three small slits in the paper with your hive tool to give the bees a head start.

4. Place the weaker colony on top. Set the brood box of the weaker (now queenless) colony directly on top of the newspaper. Ensure the box sits flat with no major gaps around the edges.

5. Close the hive. Replace the inner cover and telescoping cover on top of the upper box. The upper box retains its own entrance for now, or you can close it to accelerate combining.

6. Wait forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Do not disturb the hive during this period. The bees will chew through the newspaper and merge gradually.

7. Check and consolidate. After two to three days, open the hive and remove any remaining newspaper scraps. The bees should be intermingled and calm. You can now rearrange frames into a logical brood nest configuration.

When to Combine

Combining After Queen Failure

When a colony goes queenless and you discover it too late to requeen (no mated queens available, or the colony is too weak to support one), combining is the correct response. Remove any remaining queen cells, confirm no laying workers are present (check for multiple eggs per cell and scattered laying pattern), and combine with a queenright colony using the newspaper method.

Queen Banking

What Is Queen Banking?

Queen banking is the practice of holding multiple mated queens in a single colony for storage and later use. The queens are kept in specialized cages within a strong colony that feeds and cares for them, but they cannot lay eggs or interact with each other.

This technique is essential for commercial operations that need queens available on demand, but it is also valuable for serious hobbyists who want to keep backup queens or time their requeening for optimal results.

How It Works

A queen bank is built within a strong, queenright colony. The colony's own queen occupies the lower brood nest. Above a queen excluder, banked queens are held in cages with attendants, suspended between frames in a brood box or special bank frame.

The host colony's workers feed the banked queens through the cage screens. The queens remain healthy and can be held for several weeks, though holding them longer than three to four weeks begins to affect their reproductive quality.

Setting Up a Queen Bank

1. Select a strong host colony. The colony must be populous, healthy, and well-fed. A colony with at least eight frames of brood is ideal.

2. Install a queen excluder. Place the excluder above the queenright brood nest. The colony's queen stays below.

3. Prepare the bank box. Place a brood box above the excluder. Fill it with frames of drawn comb, including at least two frames of young brood (from the lower unit) to attract nurse bees up into the bank area.

4. Insert queens in cages. Use queen cages with removable candy plugs or standard shipping cages. Each cage should have five to ten attendant workers from the queen's original colony. Suspend the cages between frames by pressing the metal tab into the comb or using a specialized bank frame that holds multiple cages.

5. Monitor every five to seven days. Check that queens are alive and being fed. Replace dead attendants. Ensure the host colony has adequate stores.

Uses for Banked Queens

• Emergency requeening: Have queens ready when a colony goes queenless unexpectedly.
• Timed requeening: Bank spring queens for late-summer requeening when mite loads are high.
• Nuc production: Pull banked queens to start new nucs whenever you have the bees and frames to support them.
• Selling queens: Hold inventory without maintaining dozens of nucs.

Caution: Banked queens experience a decline in quality over time. A queen banked for one week performs essentially like a fresh queen. After three weeks, you may see reduced laying vigor. After six weeks, the queen may be permanently compromised. Plan your banking timeline accordingly.

Making Increase Without Losing Honey Production

Every beekeeper faces the tension between growing their apiary and maximizing honey production. Taking bees and brood out of a colony to make a split directly reduces that colony's foraging force. But with careful timing and technique, you can make increase while keeping honey yields strong.

The Walk-Away Split with Boost

1. Time it right. Make splits four to five weeks before the main flow. The parent colony will rebuild its population in time for the flow, and the split will be building strength during the flow.

2. Take frames, not bees. Move two to three frames of sealed brood with adhering bees to the nuc, but leave the foragers with the parent colony. The foragers are your honey producers.

3. Feed the parent colony aggressively. After the split, feed the parent colony with syrup or protein patties to accelerate brood production. The queen will ramp up laying to replace the removed brood.

4. Give the split a queen cell, not a queen. A ripe queen cell costs less than a mated queen, and the split will build around the new queen during the flow rather than waiting for a shipped queen to arrive.

5. Assess at flow onset. If the parent colony has rebuilt to full strength, add supers normally. If the split has grown strong enough, add a super to it as well. If either is lagging, combine them back.

Nucleus Colony Pipeline

Maintain a standing population of three to five nucleus colonies throughout the season. These serve as:

• Queen rearing resources
• Emergency replacement colonies
• Genetic reservoirs
• Resources for boosting weaker production colonies

Rotate frames through your nucs regularly. Move sealed brood from strong colonies into nucs, and move drawn comb and stores from nucs into production colonies as needed. This keeps both systems productive.

Pollination Contract Management

Hive Strength Standards

Commercial pollination contracts specify minimum hive strength, usually measured in frames of bees and frames of brood. The most common standard, established by the California almond industry, requires:

Contracts for other crops (apples, blueberries, cranberries, melons) typically require six to eight frames of bees, with some specifying brood minimums and others focusing solely on forager population.

Preparing Colonies for Contract

Begin preparation eight to ten weeks before the delivery date:

1. Assess every colony. Inspect and grade each hive against the contract standard. Cull or combine colonies that will not meet the grade.
2. Feed protein. Pollen substitute patties stimulate brood production. Place one patty per colony every two to three weeks.
3. Feed syrup if necessary. Light syrup (1:1) simulates a nectar flow and encourages brood rearing.
4. Treat for mites. Ensure mite counts are below threshold well before delivery. Some contracts require documentation of treatment.
5. Requeen weak colonies. A new queen will ramp up laying faster than an underperforming one.
6. Final grading. Two weeks before delivery, inspect every colony one last time. Combine any that are still below standard.

Placement in the Orchard or Field

• Standard density: Two colonies per acre for most crops. Almonds may require two to three per acre.
• Distribution: Space colonies in groups of eight to twelve throughout the field, not all at one corner.
• Orientation: Face entrances away from prevailing winds and toward morning sun if possible.
• Access: Ensure the grower can reach the hives with equipment without damaging crops.
• Water: Colonies need a clean water source within half a mile. Provide one if none exists.

Fees and Contracts

Pollination fees vary widely by crop, region, and season. As a general framework:

• Low-demand crops (sunflowers, canola): $30-$60 per colony
• Medium-demand crops (apples, blueberries, cherries): $75-$150 per colony
• High-demand crops (almonds): $180-$250+ per colony

Always use a written contract that specifies: number of colonies, minimum strength standard, delivery and pickup dates, placement responsibilities, access for inspection, payment terms, and liability for pesticide damage.

Important: Never place bees in a field without confirming the grower's pesticide schedule. Even products labeled "bee-safe" can cause sublethal damage when applied during bloom. Get the spray schedule in writing.

Moving Bees

Short Distance Moves (Under Three Miles)

Moving a hive a short distance is one of the trickiest operations in beekeeping. Bees navigate by landmarks and will return to the original location if moved too close to it. The rule of thumb: move the hive either less than three feet or more than three miles.

For moves of three feet to three miles:

1. Move in stages. Relocate the hive two to three feet per day until you reach the new position. This allows foragers to adjust their orientation incrementally.

2. Use an obstruction technique. Place branches, a lean-to, or other visual barriers in front of the new entrance at the original location. This forces returning foragers to reorient when they encounter the unfamiliar obstacle.

3. Move at dusk. Wait until all foragers have returned for the evening. Close the entrance with a screen or entrance block. Move the hive after dark. Open the entrance at the new location before dawn.

Migratory Beekeeping Basics

Moving bees to follow nectar flows or fulfill pollination contracts is the backbone of commercial beekeeping. Even small-scale beekeepers can benefit from moving colonies to take advantage of seasonal forage.

Preparing for transport:

1. Secure the hive. Use ratchet straps around the entire hive (bottom board to telescoping cover). Two straps per hive, one near the top and one near the bottom, prevent shifting.

2. Screen the entrance. Use entrance screens that allow ventilation but prevent escape. Bees generate significant heat when confined, so airflow is critical.

3. Provide ventilation. Replace the inner cover with a screened inner cover for long moves. In hot weather, consider a top screen with a spacer rim for additional airflow.

4. Load at night. After dark, when all foragers are home, seal the entrance and load hives onto the truck or trailer. Secure them so they cannot slide or tip.

5. Drive smoothly. Sudden stops and sharp turns slosh frames and crush bees. Drive as though there are open cups of water on every seat.

6. Unload before dawn. Get hives positioned and opened before the sun comes up. This gives bees time to orient before the foraging day begins.

Requeening Without Finding the Queen

Finding the queen in a populous colony can take fifteen minutes or it can take an hour of frustration. Sometimes it is simply not practical, especially with defensive bees or during a heavy flow when the boxes are heavy and glued together with propolis.

Fortunately, you can requeen successfully without ever locating the old queen. Two reliable methods:

Push-In Cage Method

The push-in cage is a small wire mesh enclosure (usually about three inches square) that you press into the comb, trapping the new queen on a patch of cells while protecting her from hostile workers.

Procedure:

1. Prepare the new queen. Remove her from the shipping cage and place her in a push-in cage. Press a small piece of fondant or candy into one corner of the cage as a timed-release exit.

2. Select a frame. Choose a frame with some emerging brood and honey from the target colony. The emerging brood ensures that young, accepting nurse bees will surround the new queen.

3. Install the cage. Press the cage into the comb on the selected frame, enclosing the queen within. The cage edges should sink into the wax deeply enough to prevent workers from entering from the sides.

4. Return the frame. Place the frame in the center of the brood nest. Close the hive.

5. Wait three to five days. During this time, the new queen is fed by workers through the cage mesh. The colony's pheromone profile begins shifting as the old queen's pheromone fades (since workers will eventually locate and dispatch her, or she may be superseded naturally).

6. Release the queen. Return and remove the push-in cage, or allow the workers to chew through the candy release. Check for eggs in the surrounding cells within another three to five days.

Newspaper Combine with New Queen

If you cannot find the old queen and the colony is large and productive, consider this indirect approach:

1. Place the new queen (in her shipping cage) between two frames of brood in the upper box of the colony.
2. Separate with newspaper. Place a sheet of newspaper between the upper and lower boxes. This creates a barrier that slows the spread of the old queen's pheromone to the upper box.
3. Wait. Over two to three days, the bees chew through the newspaper. The new queen's pheromone spreads through the upper box while the old queen's influence in the lower box continues.
4. Check for resolution. After a week, check for a single laying queen. In most cases, the workers will have chosen the newer, more vigorous queen and dispatched the old one.

Honest Assessment: These methods work well, but they are not one hundred percent reliable. There is always a risk that the colony rejects the new queen and retains the old one, or that both queens are lost. Check within seven days and be prepared to intervene if things have gone wrong.

Advanced Swarm Prevention

Standard swarm prevention (adding space, making splits, removing queen cells) works for most situations. But when you are managing large colonies, running double-queen systems, or working with races that are strongly swarm-prone, you need more sophisticated approaches.

The Demaree Method

The Demaree method is a swarm control technique that keeps the entire colony together while separating the queen from her brood. It was developed by George Demaree in the late 1800s and remains one of the most effective methods for preventing swarms in colonies you want to keep at full strength.

Theory: The swarm impulse is triggered by crowding in the brood nest, the queen's pheromone being diluted across too many bees, and the presence of abundant queen cells. By moving the queen into a fresh box above a queen excluder and placing all the existing brood below, you relieve the crowding impulse in the queen's new laying space while the brood below emerges and the colony stays united.

Step-by-step:

1. Find the queen. (This is the one technique in this guide that requires finding her.) Move her, on the frame she is on, to a safe holding nuc temporarily.

2. Rearrange the boxes. Place one empty brood box (with drawn comb or foundation) on the bottom board. Place a queen excluder on top of it.

3. Move all brood above the excluder. Put the original brood boxes (with all brood, bees, and queen cells) above the excluder.

4. Return the queen. Place the frame with the queen into the empty lower brood box. Fill out the box with additional drawn comb.

5. Add supers on top. Place honey supers above the upper brood boxes.

6. Destroy queen cells in the upper boxes after seven days. The bees will have started new queen cells above the excluder. Cut them all out. This is critical: if you miss one, the colony may still swarm.

7. Destroy queen cells again at day fourteen. A second round of queen cells may have been started. Check again and remove them.

8. Reorganize after three weeks. At this point, most of the brood above the excluder will have emerged. You can consolidate the colony back into a normal configuration.

The Snelgrove Board

The Snelgrove board, designed by Leonard Snelgrove, is a specialized entrance management board used for swarm control. It is a double-screened board with multiple entrances that can be opened or closed selectively to manage bee traffic between upper and lower units of a divided colony.

The key advantage of the Snelgrove board over simple splits is that the colony remains a single foraging unit. All bees use the same entrances, but the board controls which bees go where within the hive.

Basic operation:

1. Divide the colony. Place the Snelgrove board between upper and lower boxes, with the queen in the lower box.

2. Open the appropriate entrances. The board has entrances on different sides at top and bottom. By opening upper entrances on one face and lower entrances on another, foragers from the upper unit exit through the upper entrance and return to it, while the lower unit's bees use the bottom entrance.

3. Manage flying bees. As brood emerges in the upper box, the new bees orient to the upper entrance. This prevents the upper unit from becoming overcrowded with bees that belong to the lower unit.

4. Reunite after the swarm season. Remove the board and allow the colony to remerge. If a new queen was raised in the upper unit, you will need to decide which queen to keep.

The Snelgrove board requires careful entrance management over several weeks, following a specific schedule of which entrances to open and close. It is more labor-intensive than the Demaree method but gives excellent control over population distribution.

Choosing Between Methods: For most beekeepers, the Demaree method is simpler and more practical. Reserve the Snelgrove board for situations where you want to maintain a productive upper unit with its own queen while preventing swarms, such as in queen rearing operations or double-queen systems.

Troubleshooting Complex Colony Problems

Laying Workers

When a colony is queenless for too long (typically three to more weeks), worker ovaries can become active and they begin laying unfertilized eggs that develop into drones. Signs include:

• Multiple eggs per cell, often on the cell wall rather than centered
• Drone brood in worker-sized cells (raised cappings)
• Scattered, erratic brood pattern
• Declining population with no worker brood

Treatment options:

• Early stage (eggs only, no larvae yet): Introduce a new queen immediately using a push-in cage or combine with a queenright colony.
• Mid stage (drone larvae present): Shake all bees off every frame in front of a strong queenright colony. The laying workers are accepted because they lose their colony identity. Do not just add frames of brood; the laying workers will destroy any queen cells.
• Late stage (colony severely weakened): Combine using the newspaper method with a strong colony. Do not waste a queen on a laying worker colony in advanced decline.

Drone-Laying Queen

A queen who has run out of stored sperm (she mates once and stores sperm for life) can only lay unfertilized eggs, which become drones. This is different from laying workers because:

• Only one egg per cell, centered
• Consistent laying pattern
• All brood is drone, in both worker and drone cells

Solution: Replace the queen. This is a straightforward requeening. The colony will usually raise supersedure cells on their own if you give them time, but introducing a mated queen is faster and more reliable.

Aggressive Colonies

A colony that was previously gentle but becomes defensive may have:

• Lost their queen and been replaced by an Africanized or aggressive supersedure (in areas where Africanized bees are present)
• Experienced a disturbance (skunks, bears, or repeated rough inspections)
• Become queenless, which often makes colonies defensive

Diagnostic steps:

1. Confirm queen status. A queenless colony is often hot.
2. Check for external disturbance. Look for scratch marks on the front of the hive (skunks) or damaged equipment.
3. Assess the duration. If the aggression persists across multiple inspections over two or more weeks, requeen with a queen from a known gentle line.

Colony Collapse Over Winter

A colony that enters winter with adequate stores and population but dies with honey still in the hive suggests:

Prevention: Fall mite treatment is the single most important factor in winter survival. Monitor mite levels through September and October. Treat aggressively if counts are above two percent (alcohol wash). Ensure colonies enter winter with at least sixty pounds of honey or syrup stores.

Robbing Situations

Strong colonies will rob honey from weak colonies, especially during dearth periods. Signs include:

• Bees fighting at the entrance of the weak colony
• Wax cappings on the ground in front of the hive
• Rapid loss of stores in the weak colony
• Increased activity at the weak colony's entrance from non-resident bees

Intervention:

1. Reduce the entrance of the weak colony to one inch or less.
2. Place grass or a robbing screen over the entrance to confuse robbers.
3. Move the weak colony to a different apiary if robbing is severe.
4. Feed the weak colony internally (frame feeder or division board feeder) rather than using entrance feeders, which attract robbers.
5. Do not spill honey or leave exposed comb in the apiary during dearth periods.

References

1. Connor, L.J. Increase Essentials. Wicwas Press, 2009.
2. Delaplane, K.S. & Harman, A. Crop Pollination by Bees. CABI Publishing, 2000.
3. Morse, R.A. & Flottum, K. (Eds). The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture. Root Publishing, 2007.
4. Snelgrove, L.E. Swarming: Its Control and Prevention. Northern Bee Books, 2011.
5. Winston, M.L. The Biology of the Honey Bee. Harvard University Press, 1991.
6. Caron, D.M. & Connor, L.J. Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping. Wicwas Press, 2013.
7. Sumner, D.A. & Boriss, H. "Bee-Conomics and the Leap in Pollination Fees." Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California, 2006.
8. Delaplane, K.S., et al. "Standard Methods for Estimating Strength Parameters of Apis mellifera Colonies." Journal of Apicultural Research, 2013.
9. Seeley, T.D. Honeybee Democracy. Princeton University Press, 2010.
10. Dietemann, V., et al. "Standard Methods for Varroa Destructor Research." Journal of Apicultural Research, 2013.