2nd-year beekeeper here with first walk-away splits underway. I initially made a single split from my 1 hive, to a 4 frame nuc, however made a second when I found 6 queen cells on one frame and 3 on another. Today is day 20 since the initial split. I inspected today and found a queen in each nuc. I am hoping for some guidance as to what to do from here.
Should I plan on inspecting weekly to look for eggs as evidence of a successfully mated queen?
When can I safely move these to 10-frame deep hive bodies? I have read that the queen will potentially make multiple mating flights, including after beginning laying, so I didn't want to move them to a deep until I could safely assume she will no longer be leaving.
One of the nucs, the initial split, is VERY full of bees. I am concerned that I added too much brood at the time of the split. Would adding a second nuc body above this with another 4 frames of foundation help relieve this congestion? I am concerned about my queen potentially swarming due to congestion.
Thanks for any information.
This video will answer most of your questions and give you even more information you'll find usefull.
The Sustainable Apiary by Mike Palmer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nznzpiWEI8A)
Yeah, I would just add another 4 frame body above the one that has a high population for now. The population isn't going to grow anymore until the new queen starts laying and new brood hatches, but the bees will be looking for someplace to store nectar and maybe build some more comb. The population of moving bees in the box shouldn't grow anymore for about another month (queen starting laying + 21 days).
I normally see eggs in a walk away split after about 30 days. Give them another 10 days and check again.
Quote from: BlueBee on June 09, 2014, 01:32:56 AM
Yeah, I would just add another 4 frame body above the one that has a high population for now. The population isn't going to grow anymore until the new queen starts laying and new brood hatches, but the bees will be looking for someplace to store nectar and maybe build some more comb. The population of moving bees in the box shouldn't grow anymore for about another month (queen starting laying + 21 days).
I normally see eggs in a walk away split after about 30 days. Give them another 10 days and check again.
^^^^^^ that's been my experience. 30-40 days before you see good laying.
I nearly always have eggs in 30 days. Once it took 34. In my cases if I didn't have eggs by then I never did have.
Anymore I combine at 40 days.
They will start with a four day old larvae and raise a queen who will emerge 12 days after your split. She will spend a few days hardening, a few days orienting, a few days mating and finally start to lay. This could be 4 days to 21 days from when she emerges (so 16 to 33 days from when you did the split) with the most likely time to find eggs 14 days after she emerges (26 days after the split).