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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Thomas Grizzle <griz AT mindspring.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Question about Splits
  • Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:40:23 -0400

Tom,

Different folks have different techniques for splitting but it all amounts to the same thing. I make splits every spring in more or less the way you've described. It's classic. If you don't know where the queen is, just make sure you've got eggs in both parts of the split and everything should be fine. Make sure both parts have open and capped brood too. The open brood (larva) frames will have nurse bees on them that are vital for raising a new queen, and the capped brood will have soon-to-be emerging bees that will keep the hive going for the long period where no new bees are raised (in the part needing to raise a queen).

If your hives are strong enough to split early (e.g. early/mid March), you may still get some honey, especially from the hive that was left with the queen.

For me, I consider "making increase" (splitting to get new hives) essential for long-term beekeeping. It's also fun and rewarding. Let us know how it goes for you!

Randall Austin

On 10/4/2012 12:19 PM, Thomas Grizzle wrote:

Hey Y’all,

 

This spring I plan to split my single hive into two, assuming it makes it, and all indications are at this point that I have at least a fairly strong hive.  I was thinking I would take approximately ½ of the frames from the key portions of the hive (replacing with foundation comb) and move them to the other hive, attempting to also move about ½ of the bees (although this might be naïve since they may just fly back to the other hive).  It seems to me that I don’t need to care where the queen is, she will end up one place or the other, and wherever she isn’t will raise their own queen.  I have never been able to find my queen in amongst the thousands of bees, so I am hoping I won’t need to when I do my split either.  I am not a “honey beekeeper” but more for the fun, education, and pollination, so I realize splitting at this time of year probably assures that I will not get any honey this spring.

 

My SHB situation seems to be fine now, traps are killing them, bees are chasing them, and life in my hive generally sucks for them. haha

 

Thanks for any advice about splits.

 

Tom



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