1st year Beek.
I am in Central florida and do not know how strong the spring flow is, but assume it will be pretty strong.
I wish to go from 1 hive to 3 hives and a nuc this year. I understand I will not get much honey, but
I hope to rely on the strong fall Brazilian pepper flow to strengthen them for the next (mild) Fla winter.
I only have drawn comb in the original deep. The rest will be foundation.
I intend for each split to raise their own queens.
Question:
I have 1 deep hive and wish to split (double screen method) 1/2 of current hive in top box, 1/2 in bottom box. I also have 1 med super full of honey I may split between the top and bottom deeps.
How long to wait (during flow or preflow) to split original again with double screen and
also split the new 'split' into a 5 frame nuc ?
Is this split reasonable with little risk ?
Thanks
Mike
I would hold off on the split. Let the hive build itself up to at least two deeps of brood and then do a divide. My opinion is splitting the hive now will give you two weak hives.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
Weak hives will be a target for SHB and wax moths. Last year I split a hive that I thought was strong, Immediately lost one nuc to SHB and later the other to wax moths. If you do the divide, watch them very close. Personally, I agree with Brendhan, I don't think that you have enough bees....yet.
Steve
New guy open to opinions, but thought that the double screen method would help by
top and bottom boxes acting like a large single hive to fend off shb and moths ?
I was thinking of splitting at the end of Feb ?
Again not trying to fight the lifeguards :) just trying to learn.
Good advice from Brendham and Asprince. Why not wait till the Pepper to do your splits it's our strongest flow.
I started five four frame nucs on HSC the first week of Sept. Their now in one deep and two mediums each. And if you do that you can pull some honey after the citrus this year.