Increasing number of hives

[Travis]

I was wondering if anyone has ever tried this method of increasing the number of hives they have. I have not tried it yet and was just wanting others input and suggestions. Here's the link to explain the method.
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/method1.html

Thanks for your input.

[standman]

Travis, I have never tried it, but contemplating something like it using queen cells this summer. Hope to speed up the process a little. If you try it, please let us know how it works.

[Vance G]

Travis,look at mel disselkoens method at mdasplitter.com it is a simpler approach I personally think and if you read all the plans from top to bottom, they repeat about three times and at the bottom you will have a working understandable knowledge. All these methods work if you understand them.

[Daniel Y]

I didn't really spend a long time looking at the method. But I will say it looks about like trying to keep track of plants you started indoors. Very few people can stay organized long enough to keep track of them. The overall effect to me is this is an exercise in making something as complicated as humanly possible. I won't defend anything I am saying because it is nothing more than impression. less reliable than opinion in my way of thinking. But still I would take a casual glance at this and say pass. I don't need bee management to become more complicated than preparing my taxes. It may look sweet on paper but simply has disaster written all over it for most. IF you are one of those types that can carry out a complicated plan over an extended period of time. it may very well be the method for you.

[Travis]

Standman, I think my dad was thinking about the same thing your going to be doing with the queen cells, that's a little advanced for me right now but he thinks he can do it. I'll update you as I go, I would also like to know how your plan goes.

[standman]

I have eight queen cells cooking right now. Moving some to mating nucs and some to queenless splits next week if all goes well. Planning to do this several times this summer to compare which method works best during a flow, and which works best during a dearth. I am afraid neither will be very successful in the latter. Keep me informed. Would love to compare notes.

[psfred]

I don't have any experience with Dave Cushman's method, but it should work fine provided you have adequate forage, healthy bees, and the time and concentration needed (and the equipment and drawn comb!).

However, unless you are building up after serious losses or want to expand into a commercial operation without buying bees, it's not a method for the hobby beekeeper -- what are you going to do with 40 hives on three acres?

It's worth a try if you in fact need to build up your number of hives quickly for some reason -- sound science. The only drawback would be that you have a large number of queens from a single mother -- fine if conditions suit that, but a recipe for serious losses if you find they are ALL affected at once by something! I would personally be happier with more variation in the genetics, for the simple reason that you are less likely to have a catastrophic loss of colonies for some environmental reason. You might lose a few more each year, but that's better than 2/3 or more of your colonies in one winter, eh?

Peter