about 3 weeks ago, i checked my hives and they were jamed full. my plan was to split but sinse they were full before i was ready to split i added a box with drawn comb so they would not swarm. each hive is now 3 deeps. when i checked again the queen moved up in the third box. now how do i split the hives without buying new queens? i wanted to just wanted to seperate the 2 deeps and let them make a queen. need help please.
Quote from: papabear on March 16, 2008, 11:39:29 AM
about 3 weeks ago, i checked my hives and they were jamed full. my plan was to split but sinse they were full before i was ready to split i added a box with drawn comb so they would not swarm. each hive is now 3 deeps. when i checked again the queen moved up in the third box. now how do i split the hives without buying new queens? i wanted to just wanted to seperate the 2 deeps and let them make a queen. need help please.
Removing frames from the outside of the broodnest and replacing with emptyframes or drawn, or foundation is one way of making room, so they are less inclined to swarm. This is Brian's method, which I like.
If your hives are busting at the seams you probably, at this time of yr, have swarm cells or even queen cells. Remove some of these frames and place them in one or two other boxes that are queenless and they can use these cells to make queens, and you just saved yourself about $50.00.
...JP
If they are plenty strong, a split is a perfectly good plan.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm