Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Acebird on April 22, 2018, 09:23:41 PM

Title: Finally got a chance to split
Post by: Acebird on April 22, 2018, 09:23:41 PM
Well the weather finally turned spring like so I split the two hives.  I printed out the Queen calendar like I always do from thebeeyard.org so I know when things are happening.  Both hives were strong.  I will wait a couple of days and see if I can figure out which ones have the queen.  It felt good to get out and smell the spring air.
Title: Re: Finally got a chance to split
Post by: MikeyN.C. on April 22, 2018, 09:54:42 PM
So i assume you made a walk away split ?
Title: Re: Finally got a chance to split
Post by: BeeMaster2 on April 23, 2018, 01:20:56 AM
Brian,
Did you see any drones in your hives or at least purple eyed drone larvae?
Jim
Title: Re: Finally got a chance to split
Post by: Acebird on April 23, 2018, 08:30:23 AM
Didn't look for them Jim.  I did see some tore open drone cells though.  I didn't bother looking for brood either, just shuffle the deck and put the lids on.
Title: Re: Finally got a chance to split
Post by: beepro on April 23, 2018, 10:46:05 PM
What is your next option if those splits did not produce a laying queen?
Title: Re: Finally got a chance to split
Post by: Acebird on April 24, 2018, 09:31:01 AM
Quote from: beepro on April 23, 2018, 10:46:05 PM
What is your next option if those splits did not produce a laying queen?
Options:
1.  Let the hive collect honey and go into a laying worker stage.  In a month in a half dump the hive.
2.  Combine hive with the other split that produced cells or back to the parent hive.
3.  If cells appear on more then one frame in the other split then add one of the frames to the cell less hive.
4.  Dump the hive.  If the reason for splitting is to have more hives then I would split the parent hives again.