Hello All,
I have split a hive, about 5 days ago, because of overcrowding.
The new hive has 5 frames of brood, and I screened the entrances to prevent the new hive just returning to the original hive. They are both in the same yard.
Should I just remove the screening, and each hive will "know" they are seperate hives, or is there something else I should do. The second hive does not have a queen. I was advised the hive would produce a queen, as I was unable to buy one, during the split...
All help is appreciated...
binglis
No need to screen. Place the hive w/ queen in original spot, move queenless hive away from original. Thats all.. They need egges less then 72hrs old to make a queen.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm#accountfordrift
You can account for drift by either shaking more bees in, evening out the drift (moving both the parent and the child) or moving it 2 miles away. Confining will help force reorientation, but it takes 72 hours to really get them to reorient.
I would remove the screen and place the split where the original hive was.
Or just put the split right next to the original hive and shuffle them around in the evening for a couple days. It's what I do and works great. I even let them make their own queens. The heck with buying one for $10 that could just die in the mail.
Sean Kelly
Thank you...
The split is right next door to the original hive...
I will remove the screening, and hope all is well...
Some will drift, but the stress of keeping them confined is pretty tough.