made split but not many forgers now?

dprater · June 12, 2013, 10:02:43 PM

Was in one of my haves and found several Q cells and lots of bees and brood. So I made a split with 3 Q cells 2 frames of caped brood and a frame of honey and pollen and put sugar water on them.
Oh by the way I keep the split in my yard. Had lots of fliers first day or so but just a few now. Looked in on them today (day 6) and they are still lots of bees some flew up to meet me ;).

Will they be ok till some of that brood hatches? or should I take any other action at this point?

Thanks
Danny

don2 · June 12, 2013, 10:24:30 PM

As long as there are no flying bees, keep feeding. All the fliers went back to the mother hive. The oldest young bees will be flying before long. I would let-um ride. Keep feeding. :) d2

Kathyp · June 12, 2013, 10:30:14 PM

next time make your split by moving your queen, not the queen cells.

swap the location of the new hive with the old. foragers will return to the old location and move into the new hive. the old hive should retain enough workers.

don2 · June 12, 2013, 10:37:14 PM

Sorry, I let that one slip by me. ;) :) d2

Finski · June 13, 2013, 01:49:06 AM

.
You should make a false swarm to stop swarming fever.
Split does not work that way.
The swarm may go when ever when first queen cells are capped.

ThomasGR · June 13, 2013, 03:24:42 AM

I made 7 new nucs with the same way. Queen cells found with part of the hive placed in the yard. One key action is to close the entrance with grass. First 4 hives just placed grass but not 100%. This caused a reorientation and many bees stayed to the new place. The next 3 nucs was closed for about 24+ hours in the hive also with grass. I saw no change to population after that period. I believe its enough for the big majority of population to stay and 3 days is too much. If the temperature is fine 24 hours "prison" with ventilation seems to be nice alternative to moving beehives. Some info about how bees re orientate that given inside this forum helped me enough.

As far as traffic and foragers, what i noticed is that the first days they "stay" in hive anyway and no activity is noticeable. I believe they place all of the effort to make perfect conditions inside the NEW hive to protect the queen cell ( clima ) and the brood. After the new queen is mated bees foraging enough to notice that looks normal again, specially pollen that do not collect during the first days at all.

* I wanted a few new hives, so i did not stopped swarming.

Finski · June 13, 2013, 05:02:34 AM

Quote from: ThomasGR on June 13, 2013, 03:24:42 AM

* I wanted a few new hives, so i did not stopped swarming.

That is very different purpose. Now you surely get swarms next year because you took queens from swarm cells.- Not clever.

ThomasGR · June 13, 2013, 06:15:28 AM

Finski , do you think that using swarm cells leads to "swarmy" colonies ?
I try to read a lot, i never found a scientific article or other text to prove that statement. Its very common to hear, everybody says that. On the other hand, i found enough suggestions of good beekeepers and writers that suggest not to "crash" the swarm cells but make colonies with them.

1. Does these colonies swarm during the first year of their life?

2. Also, swarm cells have the reputation of giving the best Queens, is that wrong ?

accordingly to the answers of these questions, maybe these queens are perfect instead of "not clever". Reading Millers 50 years i found that honey production was much higher before the age of extensive queen rearing, and he used a lot swarm colonies also.

I will have to wait for a season to find out. I have a feeling that those hives will produce the most next summer.

Nature Coast Beek · June 13, 2013, 07:17:34 AM

Couple of things:

If it's foragers you want and you've already made the split, move the split away queenless portion with capped cells into the previous full hive position to pick up the foragers. Move the queen away to another location and feed that portion.

Secondly, I don't know your flow conditions, but watch feeding of splits in a main yard. Around here if you make a split into a waning flow and have strong production hives in the same yard, you're inviting trouble with robbing. That's where picking up the previous forager force is important for the queenless portion of the split. Also, restricting feeding to only as much as the bees will take by morning with reduced entrances helps.

Good luck with your split and enjoy your B's.

dprater · June 13, 2013, 09:05:42 PM

Thanks for all the info.

Got home today and saw bees flying in and out but its robbing. So I stoped feeding them and closed the hive up (feeder was inside the hive). Lots of bees still inside part of them robbers I'm sure.

I have screened bottoms boards and lots ventilation so should I keep them closed up tomorrow, going to be 97?

Got a swarm yesterday and moved it next to this one and I'm afraid they will start robbing it also?

Danny

beek1951 · June 13, 2013, 10:10:18 PM

As long as you have house bees and brood and are feeding, things are good.
Often I make splits with only house bees ands brood and a mated queen on
drawn out frames. They take almost always and build up quickly.

dprater · June 13, 2013, 10:47:27 PM

I probably should have done this to start with but I decided to take both the split and the swarm to a friends house 15 miles away. I have one hive there already. The robbers were all around both hives trying to get in. I'm afraid if I left them here at my house both the swarm and the split would not make it.

Year #2 for me and still learning.
Thanks for the help

Danny