As most of you all know I have one hive. I want to do a split this spring what time should I do this in the spring. what the temp should be and so on. I live on the west coast in Oregon.
Are you going to provide a queen or let it requeen itself?
What ever is best that is why I'm asking should have put that in the post.
I would put on a hive body for them to go up in and she can start laying in it. Then you put on a super and after they have about 3 frames full split them. Buy a good queen for the queenless ones. My way of spliting them are to run them out the top hive body with Bee-Go, place a excluder between them over night so they'll go back upmaking the queen stay in the bottom then pull the top hive next day and carry them to another outyard as I wait for my queens to get here. That will give them a day or so to know they are queenless and accept the new queens. You will see other ways and all will work well. But that is how I do them on a large scale of 1000+ hive operation. Read others to find what works for you and makes you most comfortable.
it's kind of fun, and much cheaper, to raise your own queen. of course, it will take longer for her to get going. i have seen reports that there is up to a 50% failure rate introducing a purchased queen. of course, you have an idea of the genetics if you purchase from a reputable beekeeper, and no idea when you raise your own.
just depends on your evaluation of the risk. you can buy a queen and if she fails, you can still raise your own. you can raise a queen in a nuc as a back up, and use the nuc to build up other hives if you don't need that queen.
lots of fun things to think about.
Take three frames of brood with adhering bees places in a hive body-make sure their is ample brood and bees left in parent colony-place the new hive body in the exact place of the parent colony -move parent colony to a new spot in the same yard-the new hive will pick up the field force of the parent colony-it will also contain young bees that are hatching out -those bees will be the nurse bees for the new progeny from the fresh queen you have purchased -the parent colony will have the remainder of brood and nurse bees-with the laying queen -do it at the start of the first real flow in your area-both colonies will take off-when i make divides i use nuc boxes and do a circle split four or five ways-but i dont think you will want to do that because you wont get a honey crop if you split heavily -these things can be done in the same yard no need to work from two locations in your circemstance-something to think about anyway :lol: 8-) RDY-B
Temperatures aren't nearly as important as adequate bees and adequate drones.
Irwin,
much depends on what you want.
Spring splits can be nice, and I suggest a purchased queen due to the down time involved. There is so much to miss in flow, productivity, etc. You can make a small nuc of course than add to it, and this may lessen the loss of production.
I favor doing summer splits. You have the advantage of using swarm cells as presented to you, purchased queens will be from the current year and of a much better quality/stock later in the summer.
Drones and queens will not be mated with quality until the drones mature and the temps are above 60-65 in the afternoon.
As for the cost of puchasing a queen, one could suggest that the cost of the queen is far less than what you may lose in having a weakened hive by doing a split, and lost production of honey, wax, etc. And although I think every beekeeper should raise queens, there are a number of things that could go wrong.
There are pro and con points on about everything associated with splits and the timing. But losing productivity of a strong hive, having bad queen matings due to spring weather, and getting poor quality early queens from elsewhere is something to consider.
Regardless of your decision, it will be educational, well worth the effort, and something that can always be corrected. Have fun.
Irwin,
I've done my splits around the same time I do package installs.
Check out Even Split (http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm#even) on Mr. Bush's webpage. That's the one I do. I've never bought a queen, always let them raise their own. If no queen cells in a week or so or no new queen, then I just add a frame of eggs from the other side of the split. Sure, it takes a little time but I've never had any issues this way. I'm planning on splitting this way once more this spring too!!! :-D I figure bees have been making queens longer than the post man has been shipping them, so why change the way God intended. :-)
Sean Kelly
Hi all
I need some help here. I hope to make a split in the spring/summer 2009. This will be my first split. My hive will be 2 full years old from a swarm of 2007. They seem very strong right now and gave me honey this year, they have good storage for the winter. It is a 10 frame deep and 1 medium full of honey, and it is open to the Queen. My problem is they have SHB. I had a big problem in the summer, and I still see some adults when I open the hive.
My questions are, should I make a split at all because of the SHB? If yes, is it better to make the split at the first sign of a spring flow? or wait till later in the spring? (It was early July when I found the bettle larva this year).
I like Irwin's idea of letting them raise their own queen, but because of the shb would it be better to buy a queen?
I gave my second hive some brood from this hive this summer to help build it up and unintentionaly infested them with shb and lost that hive. I don't want to make a split and loose the bees, even I would like another hive.
So, I am throwing this situation out here. Any advice, history of the same and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
green
I would be sure to keep both halves strong and able to fill the space available, so the SHB don't take over. That means you wait to split until you have enough bees and you allow for drifting.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm