Hello folks hope everyone is having a great day, I have a question about splitting a hive. From what I've read I should take 2 frames of brood and 2 frames of honey and then add an empty frame in my 5 frame nuc. ( I want the bees to make their own queen) With that being said when I replace the frames in my old hive with new frames can I use foundation less frames or should I go back with the pierco frames which are in the hive now, my hive is a lang ten frame hive with 2 deeps and is slam packed with bees. I would like to start using foundation less frames in my hives. Any help would be appreciated.
Moyock N.C? Hung out there for a little while at the Blacwater facility for a little 'vacation' 8-)
IMHO, I would only add a couple of foundationless frames in the broodnest and then maybe put the others on the outside edges at #1 and #10 so as not to have too much empty space within it. Then when they are drawn, add a couple more.
Everyone does their own thing with keeping bees. I would not put 2 frames of honey per split but rather 1 frame of honey and 1 frame of pollen.
#1 reason to not let those bees raise their own queen. They need lots of nurse bees to make a good queen as they need lots of attention while developing. Also if the larva is not of the right age they typically are poor queens.
#1 reason to not go the foundationless route. 98% of the slots I dont put a frame in turn into drone comb.
Not saying all yours will become drone comb and not saying having drones around is a bad thing. Just want to point out some observations I see. Mainly I want them to draw this out as drone comb as its my form of IPM. I let them cap the drones and then pull then entire frameless frame of drones out and pitch them into the weeds. So with that said I run all my colonies with only 9 frames in them so they will create this drone comb for me.
This looks like its going to be one of those 'everybody's got 2 opinions' topics. :shock: Pretty much there's more than one way to skin a cat. Good luck sorting it all out.
When i make 5 frame nucs (deep frame) i use 4 frames of fresh brood. I top it off with either a solid pollen frame or a solid honey frame. That depends on the balance of honey & pollen thats already on the brood frames.
I use a quiet box during manipulation. When everything has been put back i shake the remaining bees from the quiet box into the nuc.
When i say 'Fresh' eggs i mean i take the queen off the frame shes on and use it; along with the adjacent frames. I check to make sure each frame has eggs that are still 'standing up'.
They make their own queens.
I also put foundationless frames back in the parent hive. They are mixed in with the other frames to 'Open' the brood nest. My understanding is that this aids in Swarm Prevention. All this is done after the cold weather breaks though.
To add to this, may have already been discussed, I let the parent colony raise their own queen, not the nuc. The parent colony has far better resources to make another than the nuc so the current queen goes with my nuc.
Agreed; if you can find the parent colony queen its best to use her for the NUC, along with most open brood (and the attached nurse bees). This will maximize the foraging forces of the old hive because they have so little brood to care for. I've found that ebbs and flows in drone population can assist in interupting varroa cycles, so I don't worry too much about the number of drones anymore when it seems there are a lot. I trust the bees know best. I use mostly foundationless (all mediums) frames with just a few with foundation for emergencies.
thomas
All good points being made. Here is another option for allowing them to make their own queen. Let the parent colony get so strong they start forming swarm cells. Once the queen cells have been packed with royal jelly and BEFORE they are capped find your queen and take her with 1 frame (that she is on) with maybe 1 more frame of brood a couple frames of food (being pollen and honey) and place into a an empty 8 or 10 frame box vice using a 5 frame NUC box. Now you know you will have the best queen available for you split and you have your old queen.