Split question

[Bush_84]

I have a tbh with an end entrance that has a real booming population and our dandelions are just starting to pop out. So I am thinking about splits. I know that some will make a split on the other side of the hive divided by the follower board, but why not just use honey comb? The queen won't cross honey comb. It would be similar to a two queen system in a Lang. Once the queen has hatched I would move the second colony out to a different hive. Seems to me that this would increase the likelihood of a successful split. Is this feasible or will it just cause more headaches than its worth?

[Steven Ogborn]

The other bees that have access past the honey combs will transfer the pheromones.
That might possibly be a way to start a supercedure (like having brood over an excluder)I don't
think it would seperate the bees for them to develope into their own colony. I made a split
this spring by moving combs with swarm cells and bees to the back of a hive and seperating them
with a follower board. My followers are tight with no access past them. I haven't tried doing it
just by moving them behind honey comb. Besides, the virgin in the back would have access to your
old queen. I'm thinking it would end up as just a supercedure. But, if you move the combs to their
own hive after the new queen cells are started, I'm thinking this could work, but would just be a
complication for no real reason.

[Bush_84]

So I am still thinking about splits and the best way to do one this year without really hampering the main colony. I have read Michael Bush's website a few times. I am thinking that a cut down split sounds like the way to go. So would it work if I took a comb with the queen, two capped brood frames, and a pollen/honey comb would that work? I know it's not truly a pure cut down split, but if I do it before the main flow most of the brood will be capped. Is this common/feasible?

Thanks for the help in advance. I know there are lots of people right now thinking about splits and asking a lot of questions.

[Michael Bush]

>The queen won't cross honey comb.

In the spring buildup, take a hive with no drone comb in the brood nest and three capped supers on top of the brood nest and put a box of drone comb on top. I'll bet the queen will have laid it full of drone by the next day. The queen WILL cross honey comb and does so frequently enough. I've seen queens on the top bar of the top super of capped comb, not often, but more than a few times over the years. But she doesn't want to lay brood other than the brood nest UNLESS it's to meet some other need, like drones. She will cross it and the queens will meet. What they do can vary a lot. They may tolerate each other or not. The bees will have some say so as well. They want a consolidated brood nest and will work to get it and will take the queen where they want her.