splits to make bees
without sacrificing honey
production!
--------------------------
is there a way to make
bees (split maybe)
without sacrificing
honey production? I
need to make honey for
a market that
requested honey but I
want to make bees
also.
I think that you have to settle for one or the other. You can't have it both ways. Larry
If you have a very strong hive you can take a small split with the queen. The big hive will free up workers to forage after 21 days and will make a lot of honey while waiting for the new queen. The original queen will build up fast on the flow. If you don't have a really strong (populace) hive forget it.
Scott
Thank you. I do have a hiVe with two brood boxes that is bubbling over. So correct me if I am wrong. I will take the frame with the queen along with frames of honey and brood along with frames with foundation and stick them in a deep. Put a lid on it and walk away. The hive with the old queen was in replace the frames spaces replace with frames and foundation and that's it. Correct?
Pretty much. Make sure you leave them with eggs to make a new queen. If the main flow is eminent you can make your split with just one frame of brood and a frame of honey/pollen and give the queen drawn comb so she can keep laying.
Most who use this system for better honey crops time the split to be three weeks before the flow.
Scott
One thing to watch is to make sure that the strong hive isn't getting ready to swarm when you do this. If they have swarm cells started when you make the split, you could end up losing a swarm from the strong hive after you split.
That's what happened to me last year. I saw that they were just starting to make queen cells, but thought I'd caught them in time. I cut out all the queen cells, or so I thought, and made sure that I left eggs in the box. Then I took the queen, along with a couple of frames and put them in a nuc. The weather got nasty for for a good while and I didn't get into them for a couple of weeks. When I did, I saw that that the big hive had swarmed.
Quote from: hardwood on May 05, 2012, 04:27:12 PM
Pretty much. Make sure you leave them with eggs to make a new queen. If the main flow is eminent you can make your split with just one frame of brood and a frame of honey/pollen and give the queen drawn comb so she can keep laying.
Most who use this system for better honey crops time the split to be three weeks before the flow.
Scott
thanks scott..
the hive that i am going to let it make its own queen, should i move it to another location when i am done? also the hive that i make with the queen i should shake bees into it? and is that one ok to keep at its same location?
sorry for all the questions but i plan on trying one hive this afternoon..
ant
No need to move either. If the brood you take for the split is open a good percentage of the bees that go with it will be young and won't fly back to the mother hive. Shake a frame or two more (from open brood) into the split and call it good.
Quote from: adamant on May 05, 2012, 03:59:38 PM
splits to make bees
without sacrificing honey
production!
Only if you go to So.FL. in Jan. and back to N.J. in April
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
You need to ask this ??? 3 or 4 Mo. ago may be someone would tell who to get a strong hive in April in N.J. and not moving them.
You got to know your golds 3 to 4 Mo.in advance. Just my $0.02
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Split them after the spring flow is over. Down here our honey stops in early July. Put them on drawn comb. You can harvest your spring honey. Feed them syrup all summer until the fall flow for winter's honey for them.
This may help you for next year.
http://youtu.be/qIYz65Vquxg (http://youtu.be/qIYz65Vquxg)
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Quote from: Jim 134 on May 05, 2012, 07:26:55 PM
This may help you for next year.
http://youtu.be/qIYz65Vquxg (http://youtu.be/qIYz65Vquxg)
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
jim thank you for the youtube link.. it was helpful!
hive consisted of 2 brood boxes with queen excluder and 1 med honey super
this is what i did:
1. i went in the brood boxes and found swarm cells, shook the bees off the frames and i cut out most swarm cells off and made up a new deep and added total of 4 frames of eggs, caped brood and honey. i placed some swarm cells in that deep also added a frame feeder and shook a bunch of bees from the honey super on it and placed a lid on the deep.
2. the parent hive i added 3 new frames with UN drawn foundation . i also put back the queen excluder and honey super.. put the lid back on it and walked away. all the bees that i shook off the frames from the brood boxes started to work there way back in the parent hive..
did i do it right? if not what will happen? and if it will do damage to the hive what can i do to correct it? i could not believe the swarm cells.. one queen was working its way out as i was cutting it off the frame..
If the queen is in the original box that was making swarm cells,they will still try to swarm most likely. I would have probably moved the old queen with brood and eggs and bees to the new box,simulating a swarm.
Quote from: buzzbee on May 05, 2012, 10:58:33 PM
If the queen is in the original box that was making swarm cells,they will still try to swarm most likely. I would have probably moved the old queen with brood and eggs and bees to the new box,simulating a swarm.
should I go back in there and find the queen and follow what you said above? I think there are more swarm cells left in the parent bow where the queen is.
This as some thing you may like to use if you have 15 to 20 hives
http://www.wbka.com/pdf/a018themanyusesofasnelgroveboard.pdf (http://www.wbka.com/pdf/a018themanyusesofasnelgroveboard.pdf)
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Yes.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm#cutdown (http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm#cutdown)
Quote from: adamant on May 05, 2012, 04:20:24 PM
Thank you. I do have a hiVe with two brood boxes that is bubbling over. So correct me if I am wrong. I will take the frame with the queen along with frames of honey and brood along with frames with foundation and stick them in a deep. Put a lid on it and walk away. The hive with the old queen was in replace the frames spaces replace with frames and foundation and that's it. Correct?
Add to it so much supers that they have room for bees and honey.
7 boxes is a big hive. 5 boxes is normal to me.
When yield season is almost over, the hive rears bees, which will not forage surplus and they will not overwinter.
You may split the hive to 2 or 3 and they all are one box full of bees and assistant brood.
Then queen in and you will have enormal hives for winter.