We made a bunch of splits this week. We pulled 1 frame of brood and 3 frames of bees from strong hives. we moved these hives to shltered nurse yards, where we can moniter thier progress. Instaling queens the next day I noticed some drifting, several of the splits had a suprising amount of bees, and a number of other hives had a minimal amount of bees. 1 hive had to be culled b/c all the bees left. we grouped the hives into 3 locations of 50 hives each.
Did I use to many flying bees? not enough nurse bees? does placement of the hives have an effct on drifting?
Most of the splits look OK but several will need work to even them out.
It is still early spring here and we did not have a major first brood cycle yet. All hives split were fed al least 6 lbs of pollen patty to boost them.
Did I use to many flying bees? not enough nurse bees? does placement of the hives have an effct on drifting?
Most of the splits look OK but several will need work to even them out.
It is still early spring here and we did not have a major first brood cycle yet. All hives split were fed al least 6 lbs of pollen patty to boost them.