spliting nucs

[schawee]

i have 8 nucs ,4russains and 4 italian.i want to increase and double the nucs.they are bulding up good and have to do something within the next 7 days.should i split and let them make queens or let them make swarm cells and then split.   ...schawee

[Michael Bush]

I would not split a nuc.  If you want increase I would only split a strong hive.  A strong hive would be a minimum of two deeps (or three mediums or four eight frame mediums) full of bees, brood, drawn comb etc.  Less is not enough to build up well.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm

[riverrat]

i wouldnt split a nuc I have split 5 on 5 nucs early in the year if they have build up afilled both 5 framers with lots of brood. I have heard of people splitting packages and 5 frame nuc but they wasnt very successful

[Ollie]

I have been making 3 frame splits this year, the first one has surpassed in numbers of frames, the over winter hives.
all the other (3) are recent as part of swarm prevention, they are all doing good.
I wonder how small a split can be?

[tonyp]

schawee- do you have more 5 frame boxes to put on top of your nucs? That's what I've been doing this year. I have some 3 and 4 boxes high. I'm going to split soon and add mated queens to speed things up. The higher/stronger they get the faster they draw foundation. I'm going to do this until July and try to overwinter them in 5 frame double deep configuration. A couple of guys in my area wintered some this way and say they winter better than 10 frame boxes. Man I hope they're right.

[Dunkel]

Schawee, what differences if any have you noticed in the itialian and russian nucs.  Were they both made up of the same workers and brood or from differt breeds?

[Michael Bush]

I do a lot of "splits" every year setting up mating nucs.  One frame of brood and one frame of honey.  Some grow into a hive (I move them as they fill up the space sometimes) but most don't.  I think one frame of brood and one frame of honey is minimal.  But doing strong splits, on occasion, I've done five splits on one hive and had five strong enough to go through the winter.  A split that has critical mass to take off has the possibility to do so.  A split that does not have critical mass, has to struggle their way to that point before they can take off.   Critical mass of bees is about a ten frame deep full of bees, brood etc.  Can you do smaller?  Yes.  Will they build up enough to winter?  The odds are lower.