Split or Not ?

[maple]

I have just one good strong hive that provides all the honey I need for myself and family ....... however, I've always wanted to try a split but am worried about screwing up ..........
I guess I'm concerned I'll injure or kill the queen in the process ........
I guess I figure a split will give me a second colony that will increase my chances of having at least one hive make it through the winter .......
I don't need the extra honey ........

Any thought would be appreciated ......

[Michael Bush]

>however, I've always wanted to try a split but am worried about screwing up ..........

It's not complicated. Just decide what your desired result is. Two equal hives? An extra hive for resources? A bigger honey crop?

>I guess I'm concerned I'll injure or kill the queen in the process ........

As long as you are careful that shouldn't be a problem, but if you do they will just raise another.

>I guess I figure a split will give me a second colony that will increase my chances of having at least one hive make it through the winter .......

True and give you resources such as a frame of brood etc. to help out a hive that goes queenless or has other problems.

>I don't need the extra honey ........

It's still worth having two hives for spare resources.

>Any thought would be appreciated ......

The concepts of splits are:

You have to make sure that both of the resulting colonies have a queen or the resources to make one (eggs or larvae that just hatched from the egg, drones flying, pollen and honey, plenty of nurse bees).

You have to make sure that both of the resulting colonies get an adequate supply of honey and pollen to feed the brood and themselve.

You have to make sure that you account for drift back to the original site and insure that both resutling colonies have enough population of bees to care for the brood and the hive they have.

The old adage is that you can try to raise more bees or more honey. If you want both, then you can try to maximize honey in the old location and bees in the new split. Otherwise most splits are either a small nuc made up from just enough to get it started, or an even split.

An even split. You take half of everything and divide it up. Face both of new hives at the sides of the old hive so the returning bees aren't sure which one to come back to. In a week or so, swap places to equalize the drift to the one with the queen.

A walk away split. You take a frame of eggs, two frames of emerging brood and two frames of pollen and honey and put them in a 5 frame nuc, shake in some extra nurse bees (making sure you don’t get the queen), put the lid on and walk away. Come back in four weeks and see if the queen is laying. This can also be done in a ten frame box, but I think they get a better start in the 5 frame nuc with less space to heat and maintain.

A typical split. Same as above, but you either introduce a queen you bought or you come back in four days and destroy any queen cells that are capped. These were started from larvae that are too old. Now walk away and let them raise their new queen. If you introduce a queen they will be four weeks ahead of the hive that is raising their own, so you will have to put them in a larger box than a nuc to start with.

A cut down split. This is very timing critical. It should be done shortly before the main honey flow. The purpose is to maximize the foraging population while minimizing swarming. There are variations on this, but basically the idea is to put almost all the open brood, honey and pollen and the queen in a new hive while leaving all the capped brood, some of the honey and a frame of eggs with the old hive. The new hive won't swarm because it doesn't have a workforce (which all returns to the old hive). The old hive won't swarm because it doesn't have a queen or any open brood. It will take at least six weeks for them to raise a queen and get a decent brood nest going. Meantime, you still get a lot of production (possibly a lot MORE production) from the old hive because they are not busy caring for brood. You get the old hive requeened and you get a split. Another variation is to leave the queen with the old hive and take ALL the open brood out. They won't swarm right away because the open brood is gone.

[maple]

Michael, thanks for your prompt and informative response ........
Based on all your info, I just may give it a try .........

Thks

[Scot Mc Pherson]

Doing the split into a NUC I think is the best course of action when doing splits. The smaller hive gives the bees a better start, and it gives you more options when the hive is finally successful. Since the split won't have a queen for a while, you don't want to have the handeful of bees trying to manage a full sized hive, once the queen has established a nice brood pattern and bees start to emerge you can replace the NUC with a full size hive if you like, or you can sell the hive for between $100-150. You can decide to keep the hive elsewhere and its easier to move a nuc than a full hive because you can just easily pick it up and put it in the backseat of your car and put the empty full size hive in the trunk.

Overall the bees will do better in the beginning and it will give you more options later on if you start a split in a NUC. Although I do TBHs I am building TBH NUCS of 6 bars size for just these reasons because its impossible for me to move a full and populated TBH. Its about the size of 3 deep supers.

I have a spare queen coming which I ordered and later found I didn't need. It got smashed in shipping the first time and returned to sender, so it still hasn't come but should arrive today maybe. I didn't want my $23 sitting in store credit, since I can't get a refund. I can just increase the number of my hives by 1 and have more resources for increase next year. So I have 4 hives instead of 3.

[Scot Mc Pherson]

Oh, and you'll have no more chance of injurying the queen doing a split than you would while working the hive normally. Just take care when pulling replacing frames as you should under all circumstances anyway.

[maple]

Thanks for your advice Scot,

If beekeeping was my only hobby/pastime then I would have a lot more free time to try all these things ...... but fishing and gardening take up some of my time as well .......

When making a NUC split, do you keep it closed up with a screen and feed syrup, or do you allow a small entrance for foragers ???

[Scot Mc Pherson]

NUC is an abbreviation for Nucleus Hive. It is simply a smaller cousin of the larger full sized hives. The bees live and do there business just as they would in a full sized hive, they simply have less room to do it in. NUC can be made from pretty much 3 to 6 frames of brood, and they aer left with the tops of the frames for honey and pollen storage. The hive has an entrance like any other hive would so the bees can go aboiut their business of being bees.

[Michael Bush]

I tend to keep a small entrance on a split (NUC or not) to reduce them getting robbed.