person_county_beekeepers_association AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Mailing list for the Person County Beekeepers Association, Roxboro, NC
List archive
- From: Todd Walker <mtwalker AT imageray.net>
- To: <Person_County_Beekeepers_Association AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [PCBA] Making splits
- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2017 11:52:25 -0500
Drones need more time to mature so they need to be further along in there development before the bees begin to make a queen. If you don’t have drones, open some drone brood. If you find drones with purple (or darker) eyes, you should be ok. From: Person_County_Beekeepers_Association <person_county_beekeepers_association-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org> on behalf of Randall Austin <s.randall.austin AT gmail.com> Date: Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 11:44 AM To: Mary Rich <richmom76 AT yahoo.com>, paul childers <cpc3298 AT gmail.com> Cc: PCBA ListServ <person_county_beekeepers_association AT lists.ibiblio.org> Subject: Re: [PCBA] Making splits To make a walk-away split, do must have two things above all else:
#1 is easy to check. For #2, about the only way to easily
estimate whether there are drones in the area is to see whether
YOUR colonies have drones. It is important to note that YOUR
virgin queens will NOT mate with the drones from YOUR bee yard
(that is, if everything goes the way it is supposed to), but if
YOU have drones, chances are that other colonies in the
surrounding area do too. (FYI, the instinctive flight pattern
& flight distance is different for drones and queens, so the
Grand Plan is for queens to go to Drone Congregation Areas outside
the range where drones from the same colony go, thus avoiding
inbreeding.) At this time of year, it is likely that #2 is the limiting factor. But if you've got both of those covered, you are good to go. Keep in mind that although we are having warm days lately, we still are having cold nights. If you make splits with a high brood-to-nurse bee ratio and the bees have to cluster tightly at night, they may leave brood outside the cluster "footprint". That brood will chill and die. So we need a large nurse bee-to-brood ratio for early-season splits. That isn't a show-stopper, just something to look out for. Does this help at all? Randall Austin On 2/23/2017 11:26 AM, Mary Rich via
Person_County_Beekeepers_Association wrote:
A028609D-5267-4DAC-A2B0-9125056F891F AT yahoo.com" type="cite">Thank you for asking this question. I was thinking the same thing!!! Mary Ann RichOn Feb 23, 2017, at 11:20 AM, paul childers <cpc3298 AT gmail.com> wrote: All, With all the warm weather and bee activity these past couple of weeks, would it be feasible to make a walk away split in late Feb or is it just too early and I need to calm down? The weather forecast is for more warm weather and my bee hives still have plenty of honey stores. Paul _______________________________________________ Person_County_Beekeepers_Association mailing list Person_County_Beekeepers_Association AT lists.ibiblio.orghttp://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/person_county_beekeepers_association_______________________________________________ Person_County_Beekeepers_Association mailing list Person_County_Beekeepers_Association AT lists.ibiblio.orghttp://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/person_county_beekeepers_association |
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[PCBA] Making splits,
paul childers, 02/23/2017
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Re: [PCBA] Making splits,
Mary Rich, 02/23/2017
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Re: [PCBA] Making splits,
Randall Austin, 02/23/2017
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Re: [PCBA] Making splits,
Todd Walker, 02/23/2017
- Re: [PCBA] Making splits, Paul Childers, 02/23/2017
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Re: [PCBA] Making splits,
Todd Walker, 02/23/2017
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Re: [PCBA] Making splits,
Randall Austin, 02/23/2017
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Re: [PCBA] Making splits,
Mary Rich, 02/23/2017
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