How/when to get back to two hives

[NeilV]

I started last year with 2 hives. Neither did great, one was worse, so I combined them. The queen I kept was not exactly a zinger, but the weather was bad too, and many experienced beekeepers had bad years too. Now there is an ice storm, and I'm bored and thinking about next spring and the time to order queens is approaching. Also, I plan to expand to a total of five hives (the one I've got, a split from that plus three more). I hope to get some honey off of the one established hive next year.

Here's my questions:

1. Should I split the one hive, or not?

2. If so, when?

3. Should I requeen both the original and the split? Does that affect when I do the split?

4. How exactly do I do this?

Thanks.

ndvan

[WVbeekeeper]

http://home.comcast.net/~pxbacher/PinkPages/2003_Apr_-_Cocked_and_Ready.html#Splitting
scroll down to "How to Make a Split".

http://home.comcast.net/~pxbacher/PinkPages/2002_Apr_-_Supering_Swarming_and_Splitting.html#SplittingTem porarily

I would have requeened in August or September if I thought the queen was
substandard. Requeening in the spring is ok but I prefer later in the season.
When you make your split it seems to me that would be the optimum time to
replace the old queen because you will need to find her anyway when you
make the split.

http://home.comcast.net/~pxbacher/PinkPages/2002_Dec_-_Queens_Queens_Queens.html#Requeen2