Splits

[JackM]

Can the opinions about splits be discussed please.  Try to hit the when, why, how, do not's. 

[Joe D]

This is probably not the way you would want to do a split but.  I am still a fairly new beek, this spring I found some queen cells and left them in the hives(3).  They had plenty of room etc.  I am at home most every day.  There was a total of 6 swarms from the 3 hives, I caught all of them.  Yeap, I had people tell me a good beek doesn't have swarms. 



Joe

[FRAMEshift]

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

[AliciaH]

I think it depends on the reason for the split.  Are you expanding or wanting honey?  At this time of year one affects the other. 

Or are you just wanting the discussion and not really wanting to split right now?  Because I can do that, too!  :)  But Mr. Bush has it covered, I think!

[JackM]

Well partly because I don't want more than 2 hives for now, that is enough to manage.

But a question, why does the old queen go to the split off bunch of bees, instead of keeping the queen and letting the nuc make the new queen and survive or not?

[BeeMaster2]

You move the queen for a couple of reasons. Splitting the hive simulates a swarm without losing the bees. You move the queen to the new location because she is already laying eggs. The new hive will have to start develop a new queen which takes time ( and a lot of bees) and by leaving the new hive in the old location this hive keeps more bees. The field bees that you moved, if in the same area will return to the old location. The old Q sees a loss of bees just like she would if she swarmed, less chance of swarming again. She is also in a new environment with a lot more room, just like she swarmed.
Hope this helps.
Jim

[msully]

Hi Jack,

Did the nuc I sold you swarm?

I haven't found them to be very swarmy, but they do build up in a hurry....

Mike

[Algonam]

I wish I knew what went wrong.
I split a busy hive early in June to prevent swarming. I took a frame with queen cells and 2 other frames with honey and pollen and put them in a nuc box with a 2 more empty frames on the ends. I moved the nuc over 20 miles away closer to home. 2 weeks later I transferred them into a full super as a brood box as they seemed like they were doing well. Now 5 weeks later I am seeing very litlle activity at the hive and can't hear buzzing inside at night. I'll have to pop it open when I am around during daylight hours to see what has happened. I was hoping one of the queen cells would have vreated a queen! I am too new at this to know what to exoect. I am thinking I may have squished a queen while transferring the nuc into a full brood box.

[Algonam]

cont'd. (I hit a wrong button and it posted)
I haven't had the time to get back to check the original hive this week. As of 1 week ago (at the 4 week mark) there were no signs of a queen there either! I hope I didn't ruin the whole hive.
I was in that original hive since the split. Once to exchange drone frames and once for an inspection. Again I am hoping I didn't kill a queen there too. (Drone frames force me to go right down to the brood chamber. Beacause of this huge disturbance I am considering giving up on exchanging drone frames as a form of mite control)

[Course Bee]

It's possible that your original hive swarmed and the replacement queen (assuming you didn't take all the swarm cells) is not laying yet. I'm not sure about the hive you started from the swarm cells. Was the new queen laying before you moved them to a full size hive?

[JackM]

Hi Jack,

Did the nuc I sold you swarm?

I haven't found them to be very swarmy, but they do build up in a hurry....

Mike

No Mike, just very prolific as you said, great bees.