Splits

[T.Smith]

I have read of all these splits being made with 2 to say 5 frames and letting them build back up to a full size hive. Does anybody just take a double deep and split the bees honey and pollen up between the two and move one away and requeen. Just seems to me like they would be able to build back up with a box of foundation on top faster than the smaller nucs.

[PeteS]

That's what I did about 1 month ago. Took the top deep off set it next to the orginal made sure there were eggs in the deep and today it is queenright and thriving. Called a walk away split.
Pete

[Hokie Bee Daddy]

I tried what you mention this year with one hive and I also pulled 3 frames from another hive for a split. The hive that I pulled three frames from made honey this year. The hives I split the way you mentioned will be lucky to make it through the winter and I'll have to feed a lot. Before the split the donor hive had a full super and had started building another super of comb. Now the formally full super is 1/3 empty and they never drew any more comb.

There are several reasons for the problem and they are all beekeeper related (1) the queen slipped through an excluder and into the wrong box so the bees rejected their queen (2) there were too many drones taken with the split hive as that's where all the drone brood was and (3) varroa infection in both hives (just treated). The 3 frame split took their new queen quickly and filled a complete deep box within a month and I've had no problems at all with them.

My feeling is the 3 frame split is easier to get right for a newbee and doesn't set the donor colony back as much. To split deep boxes you really need to do a thorough job balancing the resources of the hive - drones, workers, pollen, honey & brood. After the experience this year I will only do the 3 frame split from now on. I'm doing two more now.

[RAK]

One of the best methods out there. Usually people do this with swarm cells.

I split away one frame of brood and one frame of honey and pollen and give them a queen cell. That way by fall I have strong colonies who will take off next spring. I also make small nucs with extra queens just in case...

[Michael Bush]

If I'm trying to make increase I prefer at least ten deep frames of bees (or in my case 16 medium frames of bees) brood, honey and pollen. That is critical mass to take off well. I also make a lot of two frame mating nucs, but they don't take off well... and I don't expect them to.

[Vance G]

I bought six five frame nucs this spring and four spare queens. They were supposed to cover slips and misses of 15 other beginners and hobbyists. The total order was around sixty nucs and I was playing it safe I thought. No one wanted the spare queens it turned out. I ended up stealing brood from my five frame nucs and used 3 queens in a threeway nuc box with a screened bottom that sat on a strong colony for heat. I split another nuc and put it in a two way and put that also on a stong colony. Then came a month of cold freezing weather. I think I would have been actually ahead in honey production if I just would have pinched those queens because, I just didn't have enough bees to cover the brood everyone was producing. After I had ordered my bees in January, I had fallen victim to advertizing and bought three queens of another race that i thought to use in my three way nuc box on and even though they came late, again I really didn't have the bees to support the brood. I had one failure on my two way split and recombined it. I now have 12 colonies from the six I recieved April 15th. In spite of a cold spring, I am now in the middle of a flow that people dream of. My late splits made nearly the end of June are 5, 6 and 10 frames now. The ten framer being the one who inherited the strongest two's field force when they boomed out of the three way. At least two of the earlier splits are on track to fill at least one deep super. That heat from the bottom colony makes all the difference I think. So God is smiling and in spite of a late cold spring, I am going to get a crop while pulling all boxes of foundation save five boxes drawn comb in the nucs and in my posession. I am only regretting not listening to Mr. Bush and more strongly considering those cute little boxes he advoacates. At sixty years of ager, I lifted my first seventy pound deep in thirty years and said "Goodness Gracious Sakes Alive but that is Heavy!!" If I winter well, I will use those strong colonies to heat my spring splits. I do not plan on a crop off those spring splits, just populous 2 deep colonies to overwinter for the next season. It is so much fun when things work!