Splitting a hive & saving the 'orphans'

Started by Spear, July 19, 2014, 06:33:17 PM

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Spear

Moved the bees from their old hive into a new hive & split then while I was at it. I put a divider board in a 12 frame hive and and put a few frames of brood & feed into each side (all the while checking for the queen - didn't find her so hoping that she is not in there) Then I put the rest of the frames from the old hive into a 12 frame hive (Didn't find the queen but hoping that she is in there). Moved both hives 'around the corner' from their original stand. I opened up the hive that I hope has the queen in right away after moving them (put a large leafy branch in front). The other 'double hive I kept closed for about 3 hours before opening up and introducing the queens. In this time the girls had started building burr comb onto the inner cover! This to me was amazing! I really didn't think the build so fast!
Now there where a lot of 'orphan' bees hanging around the old stand, some were begging their way into the other hives around them but many were clustering together near the fence. I pushed the 'neighboring' hive into the empty slot hoping the orphan bees will go in there and boost that hive (I replaced a drone laying queen in that hive today as well). I even scooped up some of the 'orphans' and dumped them in the 'neighboring' hive but many just flew back to the clustering point. So my mom comes up with a great idea - we had an extra queen (thought I had a queenless hive that now seems to be doing fine), 'put her in a nuc and put the nuc near the orphans so they will hopefully smell her and move into the nuc.' says my mom. Ok so I do this and to help things along I scoop some of the orphans into the nuc, put a feeder on and leave them over night. Maybe this will work and I will of made 4 new hives from the 1 old hive. Only time will tell...

Steel Tiger

 Sounds like it'll work. Some people will put an empty box where the old hive was so that the bees will have a place to go and get out of the cool night air. You did that by giving them a nuc. Good luck with them.

rookie2531

Sounds awesome. I hope your queen is where you want her. I made a split a little over a week ago and couldn't find her and behold she was in the new box (didn't want her there) but better there than dead. Good luck to you and your orphans.

rookie2531

One more thing Spear, after my split, I did notice a lot more activity at the entrance in the queenless hive, and that actually made me think she was in there. The queenright hive seemed almost like nobody was home.