How do i split 5 Hives, 2 different types

[Chris L]

Ok here is the problem. I have 5 hives 3 of them are italian and the other 2 are Carnolian.
My first question is how many splits would you make out of the 5 hives and hwo mayn frames woudl you pull out of each?
The second is i want to make them all Carnolian, will it matter putting italian bees in with a Carnolian queen.

thanks for your help
chris

[Michael Bush]

>My first question is how many splits would you make out of the 5 hives and hwo mayn frames woudl you pull out of each?

It depends on the strength of the hives. A strong hive will easily make three or four splits if you feed them well until winter. A weak one may not make one. It also depends on if you are buying queens or expecting the split to raise one. It's about a 24 to 28 day delay for them to raise one before you start getting brood. A new fertile queen will start laying within a couple of days. That's a month's difference. It's a bit late for a split and letting them raise the queen. But I assume you are buying queens.

>The second is i want to make them all Carnolian, will it matter putting italian bees in with a Carnolian queen.

Not at all.

[Chris L]

Michael,
Thanks for the great replies in both of my posts. I read the post on how to split them and i think i will make one split out of each hive giving me a total of 10 hives( started with 5).
I would like to buy the queens , Carnolian, but i need a good place to buy them...do you have any suggestions.
thanks for all of your help,
chris

[Michael Bush]

If you're splitting this late, feed a lot to get them built back up.

[Daisy]

Micheal, when is the earliest we can do splits in the spring?

[Michael Bush]

If it's a strong hive and you've seen drones flying for a couple of weeks you can do it. Or if you have a strong hive and you buy a queen. You just have to make sure there are drones to fertilize the queen if you are letting them raise one.