Bee Drift After Splitting

[Beepotato]

   Hello all...I'm a newbee here and I have a question about bees drifting back to the mother hive after splitting. I'm about to do my first split and I have read that the forage bees will drift back to the mother hive and that I should shake in some extra bees to account for the drift back.
    I am going to install a QC when I do my split and I am wondering what would happen if I split the hive then put a screen over the entrance of the new hive so the forage bees can't go back to the mother hive. I would come back in 24 hours to install the QC but leave the screen in place another 48 hours. Would the forage bees reorient as they left the new hive or would they still go back?

[Ben Framed]

Welcome Beepotato to Beemaster!

Phillip

[TheHoneyPump]

Assuming the split is in the same yard and the split hives are within 20-40 feet of each other. With using a cell or as a walk away, the split needs to get the vast majority of the resources. The easiest way to do it is:
- At the original location, the mother hive. Pull out all the frames and bees, essentially decimate the box. Leave the laying queen. Only 1 frame of open brood with bees on it. Only 1 frame of capped brood with bees on it.  Fill the rest of the box with empty drawn comb, no bees. Maybe give one or two frames of honey. Otherwise fill the box with empty drawn combs.
- At the new location, the new hive. Put in the rest of the frames with all the bees all the brood all the resources.  Wait 2 hours minimum 24 hours maximum. Put on the ripe queen cell, with a cell protector.
What happens.  The mother hive is stripped of resources, most of the bees are gone, and left 1 emerging brood and 1 developing brood. The queen now has tons of room to continue laying.  The old bees that were put into the split will drift back. The old bees are the foragers. They will very quickly restock the mother hive.
At the split location, the foraging force is lost, as they fly back to the original home. Little to no new forage will be coming in for a week or two, until the young bees left there mature into foraging squadrons. That is why most of the resources were put into the split. It will also be 12 to 26 days before the new queen from the cell begins to lay and another 21 to 26 days before new bees start to emerge. Meaning 33-52 days before anything noticeable starts happening in the split with respect to population growth. That is why most of the brood and resources are put into the split.
So to answer the question.  No, do not screen them. Screening doesnt work and will not help with the balance. What you have to do is make the split much more heavily resourced.  The target would be in the order of 75/25 split of the bees, brood, and resources.
If you were to split using a caged mated queen, then the split would be more like 60:40.

Hope that helps!

[BeeMaster2]

Beepatatoe,
Welcome to Beemaster.
What THP said.
Jim Altmiller

[.30WCF]

HPs is the standard answer and is correct, but I like playing around.

Sometimes I split and put the two hives side by side. I rotate the hives every few days to allow the foragers that drift to help each hive. During the time you expect a virgin to hatch and go mating you cant do his, but while your waiting on a queen to emerge, or once there are eggs, if you rotate the hives twice a week for a bit, the foragers will feed both hives.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[The15thMember]

Welcome to Beemaster, Beepotato!    I would also recommend following HP's advice.  Not only on this, but on basically everything. 

[JurassicApiary]

Assuming the split is in the same yard and the split hives are within 20-40 feet of each other. With using a cell or as a walk away, the split needs to get the vast majority of the resources. The easiest way to do it is:
- At the original location, the mother hive. Pull out all the frames and bees, essentially decimate the box. Leave the laying queen. Only 1 frame of open brood with bees on it. Only 1 frame of capped brood with bees on it.  Fill the rest of the box with empty drawn comb, no bees. Maybe give one or two frames of honey. Otherwise fill the box with empty drawn combs.
- At the new location, the new hive. Put in the rest of the frames with all the bees all the brood all the resources.  Wait 2 hours minimum 24 hours maximum. Put on the ripe queen cell, with a cell protector.
What happens.  The mother hive is stripped of resources, most of the bees are gone, and left 1 emerging brood and 1 developing brood. The queen now has tons of room to continue laying.  The old bees that were put into the split will drift back. The old bees are the foragers. They will very quickly restock the mother hive.
At the split location, the foraging force is lost, as they fly back to the original home. Little to no new forage will be coming in for a week or two, until the young bees left there mature into foraging squadrons. That is why most of the resources were put into the split. It will also be 12 to 26 days before the new queen from the cell begins to lay and another 21 to 26 days before new bees start to emerge. Meaning 33-52 days before anything noticeable starts happening in the split with respect to population growth. That is why most of the brood and resources are put into the split.
So to answer the question.  No, do not screen them. Screening doesnt work and will not help with the balance. What you have to do is make the split much more heavily resourced.  The target would be in the order of 75/25 split of the bees, brood, and resources.
If you were to split using a caged mated queen, then the split would be more like 60:40.

Hope that helps!

HP, I always love how clearly you explain things without over complicating them.  The teacher within me (from years past) thanks you for explaining the "why" because the former student in me (from many years past), lol, would always ask. 

[cao]

welcome