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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Cole Rizki <colerizki AT gmail.com>
  • To: "ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] Hive split/new queen question
  • Date: Thu, 8 May 2014 11:57:19 -0400

Hello,

I am a new bee keeper (this is my first season), I am inheriting a friend's
hive, and I have a question about whether/how to go about doing a hive split
given the conditions in this hive.

I opened up the hive today for the first time with another newer bee keeper
to find the following conditions:

-this hive is one year-old and has not been opened since this February
-this 10-frame hive currently is made up of 2 deep supers
-both supers are 100% full of drawn out comb and honey (some capped, mostly
uncapped on all 20 frames)
-the hive is about 50% drones
-there are no eggs or brood to be found on any frames (again, they're all
full of honey)
-there is no queen to be found and no laying worker (no eggs, no larva,
nothing)
-the bees are looking very abundant, mite free and in good condition
nonetheless

I'm adding this hive to a space with two other hives (brand new nucs). My
friend suggested that I had three possibilities right now with this hive:

1. Bring this hive home, add two frames of new eggs to the top super of this
hive (one frame from each brand new nuc) and check to see that a queen cell
is formed/hatched in 15 days and that a queen begins laying soon there after
(he said that in this case, maybe I should not do a hive split?)

OR:

2. Acquire two new queens and perform a hive split, splitting up the
resources (this would be fastest, I imagine, provided someone has queens
available right now, if you do and if you think this might be the best
option, please let me know)

OR:

3. Would it make more sense to possibly add these bees to my current nucs to
up their numbers? And then split the honey between the two existing nucs so
that they have more honey for winter?


What would be my best option right now given that there is no queen present
in this hive, the hive is roughly 50% drones and entirely full of honey with
no extra space?


Thank you so much for your help!
-Cole



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