split difficulties

Mairzy_doats · May 10, 2011, 10:57:48 AM

I did a split about a month ago and almost immediately following we had a terrible storm. I had forgotten to put the brick on top of the new hive and the lid blew off. I replaced the lid in the morning but figured they were not long for this world. After that, I noticed some of the bees had what looked like diarrhea (nosema?) and gave them some light syrup with ACV. Not sure if that was the best thing to do, but I took a gamble. Waited a few days, saw no more runny poo, and bees were coming and going regurlarly.

I opened them today to see what looked like chalkbrood in 3 of the frames (its an 8 frame med) and the remainder of the bees consuming the stores but not bringing in pollen or storing anything.

When checking the parent hive next to it, I noticed that they are FULL. I also found an uncapped queen cell with larvae so I pulled it out and put it in the weak, sick hive after I pulled the chalkbrood frames. I also put in two more frames of bees, brood and honey. The parent hive is likely to swarm anyway as they are really strong and I wasn't quick enough with adding a super but hopefully by opening the brood nest I bought a little time.

So, what I'm wondeing is what did I do wrong? Or what should I have done differently? Maybe I should have just taken the entire box with the queen cell in it and split that way? I've never done a split and really the whole thing was a gamble. Maybe I shouldn't gamble ;) Thoughts? I'd appreciate any insight as I am still new at all of this...even though this is year three for me, I still feel like I don't know anything :-D

VolunteerK9 · May 10, 2011, 12:11:15 PM

Quote from: Mairzy_doats on May 10, 2011, 10:57:48 AM

So, what I'm wondeing is what did I do wrong? Or what should I have done differently?

Other than forgetting to put the brick on the hive top, which we have all done before, I dont see that you did anything wrong. With it being a weak nuc, and being hit with that hellacious storm that came through here, I would say that they are some really sad and depressed bees by now . Sounds like you did what I would have done in trying to get it going again. Give them a little time and I would say they will be back to normal.

indypartridge · May 10, 2011, 01:25:13 PM

Quote from: VolunteerK9I dont see that you did anything wrong.

Agree. It's not a matter of doing something wrong, as maybe just figuring out what you could do better next time.

That said, there are several ways to do splits, and different reasons for doing them. Michael Bush has a good summary - worth reading:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm

hardwood · May 10, 2011, 11:54:41 PM

I think that you might have lost some older bees back to the original hive and weakened them somewhat. Not that you did anything wrong, but next time maybe shake extra bees off open brood comb for young bees.

If all else fails I hear K9 will take them off your hands for free! :)

Scott

VolunteerK9 · May 10, 2011, 11:56:49 PM

Quote from: hardwood on May 10, 2011, 11:54:41 PM
If all else fails I hear K9 will take them off your hands for free! :)

Scott

Yup....Retirement Home for Lost Souls

Mairzy_doats · June 09, 2011, 07:23:06 PM

Thanks guys :)

I've been checking on them and was pretty happy to see the hatched open queen cell a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I checked a couple days ago and there is no sign of a queen and no brood of any kind. ???? They are bringing in and storing pollen and honey, and they have all drawn comb, just the majority of it is empty. So....today I did a newspaper combine with a swarm I caught about 3 weeks ago. The swarm has a queen so I thought I would try to save the split this way. I guess I'll see what comes of it when they chew thru that paper. :evil:

~mary

Kathyp · June 09, 2011, 08:31:25 PM

watch your big hive. it they were fixing to swarm you may have taken the replacement queen. hopefully they had more than one queen cell.