Is this the best time to split a strong colony

[tom]

Hello

  I have a colony that is strong and doing well i would like to know if it can be split and put on another stand. It has two frames full of brood and the rest is full of honey thats they are storing in it. I also want to expand will it make it this winter they have half of it drawn out and is building burr comb under the frame to connect with the top frames in the bottom one. and they are still rearing drones but they seem to be weeding out some of the ones that are small and keeping the big ones.

Tom

[pdmattox]

Not sure for your area but in north florida the commercial beekeeper i worked with yesterday is still making nucs for fall pollination contracts and said that you can make increases here year round.  He also advised against splits and instead to make up a nuc from a couple of frames of brood and honey from a hive.  By doing this you don't have two weak hive just a average one and a strong one and they build back quicker.

[tom]

Howdy

   It is warm here in virginia and it stays warm clean on up to about the end of septeember. I was thinking this would give them time to build up and store enough honey to make it thru the winter. In the past few years our winter has been some what warm and i do plan to feed them in september to help them make it and if they have half of the comb drawn out and a young queen i thought it may help.

Tom

[TwT]

Howdy

   It is warm here in virginia and it stays warm clean on up to about the end of septeember. I was thinking this would give them time to build up and store enough honey to make it thru the winter. In the past few years our winter has been some what warm and i do plan to feed them in september to help them make it and if they have half of the comb drawn out and a young queen i thought it may help.

Tom

sure it is tom, your hive will have enough time to raise a queen if you like for the fall flow or you could speed things up by buying a queens, but your hives should do fine without buying a queen,,, time is good here till the end of september..... and im in north east georgia

[tom]

Thank you

  You see i am having problems trying to requeen one of my other hives and i have a new breeder queen and i do not want to lose her if you know what i mean. And i can shake some of the young bees off some of the bottom frames to give them more bees and add the new queen but if my old queen is up top then i will use her in the split and put the new one in the old one these bees have no problem taking a new queen. I will work on the bottom board and do some painting to get it ready for later in the week.

Tom

[TwT]

yeh, tom in a week I will make 10 nucs from my hives from taking frames of eggs and young brood plus shaking bee's, they have plenty time before the fall flow, it usually takes a queen from egg to laying about 5-7 weeks from what I have seen, some just slower than others when weather and other thing happen....... hope this helps!!!

if you payed the money for a breeder queen you need to raise all you can from her, they dont last long!!!!!!

[tom]

Ted

  When i move this top brood chamber i am thinking of putting my new queen in it after a couple of days i still have the cage with the candy in it. And hope they will take her as thier own and then i will have a new hive of NWC's and then i can raise from her and her drones will mate with all my virgin queens and i will have a good and gentle strain of bees.


Tom

[Brian D. Bray]

Tom,

Before you act read my reply to your post on queen offspring.  I'm getting the feeling that your expectations are a little to high for reality.  What you want to do is possible with the correct approach but I suggest that you go to Amazon.com and buy a good book on rearing queens.  It will save you a lot of easily made missteps.  
Queen rearing is not for the faint of heart or the inexperienced--take a word to the wise from the angel and don't rush in.
You can go ahead with the nuc split as it will be good experience and will, at the least, give you an emergency queen.

[Romahawk]

Ted

  When i move this top brood chamber i am thinking of putting my new queen in it after a couple of days i still have the cage with the candy in it. And hope they will take her as their own and then i will have a new hive of NWC's and then i can raise from her and her drones will mate with all my virgin queens and i will have a good and gentle strain of bees.


Tom

Unless your going to be using artificial insemination there is no guarantee that your queens will be mated with your drones. The exception I suppose is if you are in an isolated place where there are no other bees, domestic or wild.

[tom]

Hello

  I see what you all are saying and you have to understand it's been years since i last kept bees so i hope you all bare with me i have to learn all over again. But i am a fast learner i am planning on trying to get all carniolan stock and instead of paying for queens i will let nature do her thing. I have just ordered a book on raising queens so it can help shed some light on what i can look for in the future.

Tom

[Brian D. Bray]

Good boy.  What's the title of the Book?  You may want to get more than one as often one will reveal something the other overlooked.  I have 4 books on incubating eggs and brooding poultry--between them all I have a fairly comprehensive guideline.