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Doing my first split(s) next week

12K views 38 replies 10 participants last post by  mmmooretx 
#1 ·
OK preparing for next year I decided to do some splits. My first hive is 80% filled on the upper brood chamber and 60% on the lower. The queen is laying well and they are being fed with HBH & Amino B. I am going to split to 2 NUCs, I am building this weekend, and my new queens are shipping next Wed. (arrive on Thursday 23 Aug.). Is two brood, one honey, and two empty good for each of the new NUCs? I will be setting up a feeder for them too with the same blend of syrup as above. Quickly I will be building a second brood chamber for each for room to grow.
I am going over Mike Bush's splits page and would appreciate any constructive advice. After Winter I will migrate the two NUCs to 8 or 10 frame Langs.
Thanks
 
#3 ·
I am making a nuc tomorrow. My new mated, carniolan, queen will arrive in the morning. My plan is for one frame of brood and one frame of honey and I am trying foundationless frames for the first time. We shall see. This is my first attempt at starting a nuc.
Let me know how yours goes Mike.
 
#6 ·
Making your frame of stores mostly pollen is better as you will be feeding syrup. I usually make mine up a little stronger for less management and feeding. 1 frame of sealed brood, 1 frame of older open larva to hold the bees in the nuc better a frame of nectar and frame of pollen and a undrawn frame. Then put a feeder on it as long as they'll take it and not plug out the nuc. Best of luck, many opinions here and they all sound good. Depends on your management preference and materials on hand.
 
#10 ·
Yes, the nucs are small, the queen is not mated yet, the nuc can get plugged out with honey quicker that we sometimes think. They do well with a small trickle feeder of some sort, not a blast of syrup all at once. Once the queen has mated, the nuc will start to draw wax on that blank frame and you'll be off and running, keeeping watch so the nuc does not swarm on you.
 
#8 ·
Yeah, that was the basic reason I was thinking 3 frames plus 2 empty as I want them to have some room to grow. I definitely do not want it maxed out on install, which would set me up in a swarm condition too quickly. These bees are pretty active. They drew out 2 foundationless, Kelley, frames nearly to the edge and filled them, uncapped last week, in two weeks.
 
#11 ·
Well, I got my nuc set up.
One strong frame of brood, one frame of mostly pollen and one frame of honey and pollen. I also place a frame of drawn comb and one frame of wax foundation. I set the mated queen and her attendants, in her box, in to the nuc box as well.

Lets see how this goes.

Thanks for starting the thread Mike and sorry I jumped on. Let us know how it goes for you. I am excited about this adventure.
Cheers,
 
#12 ·
Not a problem Greg.
Ray, I purchased mated queens so that issue is taken care of.

This is a first for me and I am really looking forward to it as a Newbeek. I am doing a hive inspection this weekend to get an idea of what to move when my new queens arrive next Thursday. Some of my frames are a blend of brood, pollen, and honey, where I have several frames 100% sealed honey. At least 30% of my frames with sealed brood cover more than 70% of both sides of the frame, so it should be pretty easy. However my upper brood chamber is getting very heavy with honey. I will probably leave both brood chambers on my primary hive, but also do some load balancing. The queen is laying in both the upper and lower but the upper is the primary honey storage at this point.
Thanks to everyone for the inputs, I do like to look from as many perspectives as I can to optimize my decisions as a Newbeek......
 
#13 ·
Remember to get some extra bees in each nuc. (maybe knock some off another frame) I did a split and had to add some more bees to the "nuc" two weeks in. Mine was TBH though.
Some of the bees will make their way back to the original hive. Mine are 175 feet apart.
If you have real bee food and not just syrup then they (the nucs) will definitely have a leg up.
You could make a food patty and put in hive to save them the trip.
 
#15 ·
This is the Nuc I started last Friday.
Furniture Bee Chair Beehive Apiary
I have a feeder on top in the second box. I had to fortify the nuc due to seeming attacks by other bees. The other bees appeared to be outsiders and not fom my other three hives. I did watch the hive lat night and I am guessing brood has hatched as there was many bees coming out and doing the circle maneuvers. I will inspect the nuc on Sat to see if the mated queen has been released and hopefully accepted.

Mike, look forward to hearing how your set up goes today!
 
#17 ·
Well I had some confusion this morning. UPS called and asked me to pick up my bees around 8AM so I got there around 9:30 and discovered that I only had one queen. Phone call and email to supplier then I went out back and did my splits (both). I got one frame of honey in each and two frames of mixed brood/honey/pollen in each NUC. The bees were pretty aggressive, we were under thunderstorm threat but no rain while in the process. I had to take one of the empty frames out so I could put the queen cage in on the one NUC. The cork was pulled on the fondant side and a small hole drilled in it with the screen side down and wax rubbed on the screen. All the bees on the empty frame were shaken into the NUC. So at this time the other NUC is queen-less and I got an email that my second queen has shipped and should be here in 1-3 days (hopefully tomorrow).
Two items I would like to state is that I never saw my established queen so I may have to re-check my NUCs tonight. I looked on each frame moved twice and the same for each frame in the original hive. I have the plastic rotating entrance covers from Brushy Mountain and currently have both NUCs on the ventilation only setting as I wanted the bees to get used to there new homes and minimize the movement back to the original hive 5' away. I plan on opening the one that has a queen tomorrow, but am not sure what I should do on the queen-less one. I am not sure I will get an updated delivery date tonight on the second queen or not. I do have a FBM style feeder that has separate feeder entrances for each NUC (top feeder) and the bees cannot go between the NUCs due to a separator I built that goes on top of two NUCs for a 10 frame feeder. When I do my NUC inspections tonight I will cover the side not being inspected with a towel to stop migration/flight as much as possible.
If anyone sees I have done something wrong let me know and advise on best correction process.
Thanks for the support in advance, and I did forget to set up my camera probably because I was upset over getting only one queen.
 
#18 ·
When you do get the second queen, check for queen cells in the nuc you intro her into. If there are cells, be sure to destroy them. Otherwise they may decide they like their own cells more than the new queen and might kill her, as blood is thicker than water, as the saying goes.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Well good and bad news this morning (Sat.) . The USPS tracking indicates that my second queen is at my local Post Office, so now I wait for the carrier. Since I have to go back in I took out 3 pieces of Mega Bee patties to warm up (I cut them into thirds) while I wait. I then thought I'd check on the bee activity at the NUC entrances, since I opened them up last night ( queen excluder opening) picture later. Well I saw no bees at the entrances so I took the top off to look at the feeder and no bees there too. So I am thinking that the bees have all gone back to the original hive. It looks like I need to swap positions of the original hive and the NUCs, plus shake some bees back in. Does it do any good to close the entrance down to vent. only for a couple of days?

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy87/mmmooretx/IMG_20120825_092240.jpg

Update: My second queen arrived at 10:30 so back into the bee yard to put the queen in, swap positions, and re-bee the NUCs if needed. I will check back when complete but I think I will put the entrance at queen excluder position until I hear from the group.
Thanks again.
 
#20 ·
Well the deed is done and my original hive was very hot, so I am glad I wore my full suit. I did not see the queen in the original hive so I am not sure what happened. The queen in the first NUC was already out, but I did not search for my original queen in either NUC since my smoker ran out and I had a bunch of mad bees in the air. I quit for the time being, but may check the NUCs this afternoon when things have settled down. Both NUCs seemed pretty mellow, hint...
Comments?
 
#23 ·
Well, I checked my nuc today to see if they had accepted the queen and to see if things had settled down. What I found was a disaster. I guess I made a huge "newbee" mistake. I thought I had made sure my queen cage was in a good position, but what I found was the worst case scenario. The queen was drowned by the jar feeder i had placed on top and inside the nuc. The $49.95 I paid for shipping is really making me ill now. I was really excited to see the new queen out in the hive today, now i feel really bad about the whole attempt to make a nuc.

I guess I will see if they can make their own queen now. (fingers crossed)

Mike, I hope yours goes alright.
 
#24 ·
Greg,
OUCH! Sorry about that. I am not sure on my condition yet, as soon as the rain settles down so I can get into the two NUCs to know my answer. I have one super mad at me that has chased me all the way back to the house twice. I guess I will have to put the full suit back on to checkout the NUCs. However I think I will just wear the vinyl thin gloves just in case I find my missing queen so I can put her in the right hive. Worse case for me is one of my queens has been killed by the other. So I would be in your situation of having to buy another queen. My shipping is less since I am 1.5 hours from my vendor and USPS priority mail is next day. One day we will be better!
 
#25 ·
WOOHOOT!!! The first frame I pulled from the suspected NUC in the picture above had the queen on it. Rather than trying to pick her up I prodded her to walk off the frame back into her hive with a twig. I then checked the same NUC as I had just put a new queen in it this morning. No issues just bees clustered on the queen cage. Now to leave them alone for a bit.
I got lucky this time and also did some newbee lessons!
:D:applause::thumbsup::D
 
#28 ·
Maybe. It depends on the strength of the hive and if they have a viable egg to make a queen from. If the do you are 45 days from seeing any eggs,assuming nothing happens to the queen on her mating flight, like a hungry bird. I plan on studying queen rearing next month, but may not execute due to the limits on a city lot (5 max. hives). You do have a tough decision.
 
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