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splits

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Michael Palmer 
#1 ·
I have one VERRY active queen right now,curently there are 2 boxes of brood and only one super of honey??? I am getting a queen excluder on sat to stop her from going up any more. my question is what to do with all the extra bees, when I say there are alot I mean I have never seen this many bees in one hive before. I live in northen ny and I am wondering if there is enough time left in the year to do a split. Im sure it might need some heavy feeding if it is not to late.I could also use some help with the spliting proces??.
 
#2 ·
I'm on the opposite coast and don't know your weather timings or nectar flows, but, purchasing a queen for doing your split and feeding might do ok. I say purchase a queen because she'll be laying soo much sooner and prolific than doing a split to have the girls raise a queen emergency style. Maybe someone else in here can give you more advise...
Good luck over winter :)
 
#3 ·
We're at the end of the season here. Goldenrod is in the second half of the flow. I think it's too late to make any splits of a strong colony.

You're colony is very strong. Great, keep it that way. One super of honey isn't enough to winter on in northern NY. With this good Goldenrod flow we're having, I think they'll pack the top brood box. That's what you want. A populous colony with 80 pounds of honey.

You should watch them for swarm preparations, though. Some colonies will swarm when packed and on this flow...most won't. I usually add a super of drawn comb on top of heavy colonies for the fall flow, none on light colonies...until Labor Day. After that, I don't add anymore supers...the bees can have what's left of the flow.
 
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