Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[AugustC]

I am trying to understand the best way of performing a split and the related pressures that it put on the bees both in the old and new locations. I am not intending to do this today btw

Situation 1:
So ... There are a number of swarms cells in the hive.
Do I ..
a) Remove the swarm cell bars along with some brood and stores and put in a new hive leaving the current queen and active foragers in the original hive, OR,
b) Attempt to find the queen and place her in a new hive with some brood and stores and leave the swarm cells and active foragers working in the original hive.

Presumably option a) would result in a slightly weakened hive that still has foragers and a laying queen, and a small very weak hive that will need feeding as it has no foragers until the brood has hatched.

Option b) would mean the original hive would have increased foragers as eventually there would be a brood break (as in a true swarm) and the new hive would recover faster as the old queen should keep laying.

Pro and cons for each please

[mannanin]

Are you looking to do this because you actually want to create another colony or are you trying to formulate a plan for if/when you find charged queen cells. If you simply want to create another colony, you can do this before you even see charged queen cells. It’s basically an even split. Take half of your brood combs, half of your stores and pretty much half of your bees (assume you don’t have the queen) and put them in a new hive, but put that new hive on the original site. Now take what’s left in the original hive (assuming with the queen) and move to the new location. The foragers will return to the old site of the now new and queen less hive. The new hive will continue as before with a laying queen and produce its own future workforce. You can also do this if you find charged queen cells of course.

WARNING! Don’t do this too early in the year! Make sure there is a good flow on and you should have no need to feed.

[AugustC]

Well i do want more than one colony BUT mostly I am trying to gain a greater understanding of the dynamics behind the effects on the hive. I am expecting a strong nectar flow in the next month so want to be ready with as much knowledge as I can.