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Good to know. I'll be putting caged queens (ready to lay), hopefully that'll work well because I'm wishing to rent them out in February.

Hopefully the queens work out for you because walk away splits in late June would put them in a tough position I would think.

Last July my bees made a lot of honey from some flower I am unaware of. It surprised me because in my area it gets really, really dry that time of year and there are no plantations, orchards, or...

Actually it'd be 4 frame splits, but only 2 of brood. The other two would be honey and pollen (with bees on them obviously). And yes I'd be feeding them rather a lot.

I split (most of) my hives 2 weeks ago, twice (I got two new colonies from one). Average was 6 frames of brood, so I would leave 2, and take 4 to make 2 more colonies.

I just checked the splits...

I split my hives only if they have 5 or more frames of brood (I could make an exception with a hive that has 4 if it has a lot of honey, and pollen).

Usually, or ideally, I split hives with 6...

I like the hives white and the tops some other color, I have some blue, red, and green ones. Bright-colored tops look nice with white hives to me.

I put my queens in immediately after I split my hives and I just went there yesterday (it's been over a week now since I split them) and I see all the queens are laying already. Mine were caged...

Thanks!

I'm receiving 40 nucs (3 framers) this week, and I just have new plastic frames fill up the rest of the hive with, so they're going to have to build 7 frames, and I want to make sure they do that so...

I'll be making some splits tomorrow with 4 frames of bees (2 brood, 2 honey/pollen) and a laying queen.

I only have a few frames with wax on them completely, the rest will be new, so they'll have...

I have several colonies with 6 frames of brood (capped and uncapped), and another 6-7 frames with honey and pollen.

I did two splits some days ago with three frames of brood, and another 3 frames...

I need about 3,800 frames, so I'd buy from Pierco because it comes out cheaper. But I'm wondering if Mann Lake is better.

I was speaking with another beekeeper and he told me that his bees wouldn't build wax correctly (or at all on some).

Do any of you use yellow plastic frames from Mann lake? If so, do they build...

Right now there's some honey and capped brood (it seems) and a cluster of dead bees. I had three that were like this and died.

I had some weak colonies (3-4 frames of bees) which were in 2-story hives (10 frame).

I'm wondering if they would have had a higher chance of survival if I had removed the second story and left...

Davebcrzy, I caught the swarm in June, I saw for weeks they didn't build wax so I put a feeder and gave them syrup in July. But they still never built anything. I ended up combining it with another...

If you're just going to be a hobbyist I suggest 8 frame, as it is lighter. If you're thinking of becoming commercial I suggest 10.

I only have 20 hives but they're all 10 frame hives.

I will be buying more bees this year and along with them I will purchase new frames (plastic).

Last year I caught a swarm and put them in a nuc with 2 frames that already had wax on them, and 3...

I'm thinking of buying 3 frames of bees, 2 with brood and 1 with pollen (I have many frames with honey I didn't extract), and a new queen (laying).

I'll be putting them directly in a 10 frame hive...

Thank you all for the replies.

This year I'll be going along with a commercial beekeeper to several places in California, and perhaps North Dakota. as Ian suggested. I'm also looking into...

I know many beekeepers that have between 50-100 hives but never go beyond that (split) because of their work.

I also know one man who bought 400 right off the bat, and in a matter of just some...

I lost almost 50% of my hives. I thought I would lose a lot more as many were only 1 frame strong. I took them to the Almond fields anyway along with the hives I rented out and it seems that helped....

A friend of mine near Fresno, California is getting $200 per hive (only 10, however).

I'm getting $133.00 per hive this year, for almonds.

I guess smaller orchards pay (a lot) more.

I would like to know how many times I could split my hives safely, so that they have the time, and the capacity to build up successful colonies.

Some commercial beekeepers I know, and work with...