It's been rainy here and I've been busy so I haven't got out to check the bees in a couple of weeks. Today was nice so I went out and found one hive was unusually loud, not a good sign. The comb in this hive was also pretty funky so I decided to clean it up and investigate. It was queenless, capped brood, no eggs or larva. LOTS of queen cells (maybe 12, 2 broke open in moving things and larva was almost mature).
So what I did. I cleaned up all the funky comb and split the hive as 2 separate hives w/6 frames brood, 2 storage, and 2 fresh frames. Each has at least 5 queen cells now. I figured if I leave it they can each raise a queen and I'll get 2 hives out of this one. Did I do anything wrong here? Thoughts? I have a nuc that is really low on bees but has a good laying queen I could combine with one of these, should I?
It all depends on what you want. Do you want more hives or one strong hive?
Is it possable your hive has swarmed and the new queen has not emerged from her cell yet? By splitting the hive you may have stopped an after swarm. I would leave all as is. If any of the hives look weak in the fall I would do a combine. They have time to build up now. At least these are the thoughts of a first year beek. Lets see what the veterin beeks say.
Joan
Quote from: Michael Bush on May 31, 2009, 11:41:51 AM
It all depends on what you want. Do you want more hives or one strong hive?
I would like to build up the number of hives I have. I figured with so many queen cells and plenty of capped brood it wouldn't be a bad time to split. Was I wrong?
Time will tell.
I split a 2 deep brood hive loaded with bees on the 25th of may. today i inspected and found about 10 queens cells capped on 2 frames 6 on one and 4 on another. I then split the queen cells up and put 5 frames in a new box so hopefully i will end up with 2 more hives out of this one split. with a dearth expected around july if and when it quits raining i will have to feed to get them built up for the coming winter.