Earlier today, I went out in my back yard, . . . to my pleasure, . . . my one lone hive had survived the winter (central Ohio) and they were fairly lively like in and out of the hive.
I even saw a couple workers come in loaded with bright yellow pollen :-D
My question: I want to split up the hive, . . . but I have never done this before. I have a source locally for queens, but he is less than friendly on helping out a nubee.
I have several large brood boxes, . . . and will go out one evening this week and make up new wax for the new boxes I will need.
I planned on separating half of each of the present brood box frames in to the "new" hives and topping that off with all new wax in the upper box on each hive. I was going to put the old queen in the "left" hive and a new one in the "right" hive, . . . but I also don't know if there is a fool proof way to keep them from all coming back to one hive.
Any suggestions will be welcome, as again, . . . I have never done this before.
May God bless,
Dwight
dwight,
Here is some good info on not only how to do it, but several different reasons why you would and different methods.
Good luck! I'm going to do one this year also. Just click the link below.
Doing a split. (http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm)
Many thanks for the link and the information, . . . but in my haste earlier, I forgot one super question.
Can you give me an educated guess of when it would be a real good time to do this. Right now here in central Ohio, . . . we are still getting frosts, and one day last week it barely made it above 40 all day. I would estimate that we are about 2 weeks ahead of whatever is happening there in Milwaukee (based on previous trips through to go to Shawano where my uncle lived).
I want to wait until there is no weather danger, . . . but if I wait too long, I am afraid they will not build enough stores to get them through the winter.
If I do an "even" split, . . . should I also begin to seriously feed them? In my pea brain that seems like a good idea, . . . but sometimes good ideas really are not good.
Thanks again, may God bless,
Dwight
Dwight, I would wait until your temps are higher, at least a constant 50f, I would prefer it even warmer than that myself. If you split with another queen you purchase you don't have to wait until its in the 70's. I would split and feed the heck outta them. Let them build and who knows they could build to a point where they make a bunch of swarm cells, whereby you could make even more splits. Have your woodenware ready in advance of course.
If you just split and rely on your bees making their own queen, you need to do this when drones are available in your area, so the virgin can get mated, or you wind up with a drone layer, another good reason you may want to purchase a queen at least for your initial split. Other beeks in your area can give you the best advice on build up and when drones become available. Join a local bee club for local info, if you can.
...JP
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm