Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Tim Picard on June 07, 2008, 04:16:38 PM

Title: Splitting hive
Post by: Tim Picard on June 07, 2008, 04:16:38 PM
I'm clearly new at this, as you'll see by my question:

I have a hive with two deep supers (mostly brood) and two medium supers (stacked with honey). There are a jillion bees and brood.

What would happen If I took one deep and one medium super and placed them a couple hundred yards away from the original spot?

Don't be cruel ...
Title: Re: Splitting hive
Post by: HAB on June 07, 2008, 04:52:33 PM
As I understand it.

Make sure you have newly laid larva, pollen, honey, and capped brood in each.
Split everything equally.  The Old Queen will be in one or the other.
The Queenless hive should produce a new Queen.

Then, if all goes well, they will need time to build up before fall.

Wish Ya Luck :)
Title: Re: Splitting hive
Post by: bassman1977 on June 07, 2008, 05:08:13 PM
Yep.  No need to put it hundreds of yards away unless you really want to.  Put some branches out in front of the new hive entrance and the bees will reorient on the new location.  Leave the new hive alone for 30 days until the new queen has plenty of time to go through the life cycle and get mated.

QuoteMake sure you have newly laid larva, pollen, honey, and capped brood in each.

Fresh eggs are the best but a new queen is even better if you want to go that route.  I let my splits raise their own queens almost every time I split.  Yes for pollen, honey, and brood also.
Title: Re: Splitting hive
Post by: asprince on June 07, 2008, 06:23:33 PM
The above advice worked for me earlier this year.

Steve
Title: Re: Splitting hive
Post by: Michael Bush on June 07, 2008, 10:56:18 PM
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm
Title: Re: Splitting hive
Post by: metzelplex on June 08, 2008, 02:59:08 AM
   I just made 4 splits last weekend from three hives  last weekend   and only moved them about ten feet away I took three frames of brood 1 pollen and 1 honey then moved them over and since the brood is covered with young nurse bees in the middle of the day that have never flown so they won't fly back to there original box when they start flying because they don't know any better it works really good for me  hope this helps .     metzelplex
Title: Re: Splitting hive
Post by: Tim Picard on June 08, 2008, 09:19:13 AM
You guys are the best — I can't thank you enough.