Please help me do this split.

[LocustHoney]

I want to split my two hives and make four. I think I could do it. I will post some pics and you tell me what you think. The hive on the left is the strongest. I will start out with it first. These are my two hives. http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u183/LocustHoney/100_3434.jpg   Now the next couple of pics are from the deep on top of the other deep. It has only been about 13 days since I put the new deep on. I am very encouraged by this and think this hive would be a breeze. Tell me what you think.


http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u183/LocustHoney/100_3482.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u183/LocustHoney/100_3477.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u183/LocustHoney/100_3483.jpg

[LocustHoney]

The first pic of the comb with bees on it, is that brood or capped honey???

[Michael Bush]

If your purpose is to get a lot of strong hives in a hurry I would do as many splits as you can give three frames of brood and two frames of honey/pollen to.  If you can't give them that much then don't do that many splits.

If your purpose is to get a lot of queens, or head off swarming or set up mating nucs, then I sometimes go as small as one frame of brood and one frame of honey.  But that size will not hit critical mass until they have about three frames of brood and two frames of honey.  Then they will start to build fairly quickly.

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

[Jerrymac]

OK I will ask. Why are your hive stands so tall? How do you get to the top box? Are you suicidal?

[LocustHoney]

Does the timing of the nectar flow have any influence at all??? The hives are that tall because I live in the country and at night lots of dogs wander and other things such as skunks come out to see what we have left close to the ground. On the contrary, in my opinion, too close to the ground would be suicidal. I would bet that I would have lost both hives by now. The boards they are on are slightly below my waist. No problem for those of us who don't have height issues. :-D

[Scadsobees]

those of us who don't have height issues.

Are you the person on the right or left in that first picture??  :-D

Cute to see the little ones in beesuits....

I think that you want to do the splits as far before the nectar flow as possible, this will give them the maximum chance to build up before so that you can maximize the honeyflow.  Depending on how you do the splits of course...the foragers will all go back to the original location.

It doesn't matter too much as long as they have pollen and you feed them syrup.