Five to thirty five

[BeeGhost]

Thank you very much RAK for explaining how you did it, and you didn't cheat with the cell maker, you showed good management and how it is possible to grow exponentially from a few hives into many!

[Charlie B]

I agree with BG, very nice RAK, I'm impressed.

[EarleB]

Earl, that's no fair, you live in Jamaica mon! You have year round opportunities compared to most of us, I'm jealous! What you do in that climate will differ greatly compared to ours. We could split all we want, but unless there are drones around to mate the virgin queens, we will have our splits disappear due to unmated queens becoming drone layers. My hives don't have a single drone in them, at least from my observation.

Don't tell any one you might spoil my girls fun. Seriously however even though our winters are warm we still have the death period and that can be very brutal, plus pollen flow varies according to season and location. While this dearth season ended early most times we have to feed from May to late August and sometimes September.

So we do have to watch and time our splits for optimal queens.