Making Splits

**libhart** · 01-27-2013, 12:15 PM

Speaking of liking the EPE hives, this guy's local to me and in my bee club. He's now a franchisee or partner or something (not sure of the exact business arrangement) with Swienty in Sweden as of a couple weeks ago. He's selling their high density foam hives, they're pretty nice. He was displaying them at the ABF conference in Hershey. The website is still just getting set up and is still a bit "European" in some of the phrasing, I believe he'll have this stuff in-stock in mid-Feb. No idea on shipping but I can't imagine it would be as much as straight from Europe to you.

www.modernbeekeepingusa.com

**Rolande** · 01-27-2013, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by libhart

Speaking of liking the EPE hives, this guy's local to me and in my bee club. He's now a franchisee or partner or something (not sure of the exact business arrangement) with Swienty in Sweden as of a couple weeks ago. He's selling their high density foam hives, they're pretty nice. He was displaying them at the ABF conference in Hershey. The website is still just getting set up and is still a bit "European" in some of the phrasing, I believe he'll have this stuff in-stock in mid-Feb. No idea on shipping but I can't imagine it would be as much as straight from Europe to you.

www.modernbeekeepingusa.com

The hives shown in the link which I assume are the one's he'll be supplying are the Finnish 'Paradise Honey' brand which are quite different from the Swienty version.

http://www.swienty.com/shop/vare.asp...&vareid=100032

**DPBsbees** · 01-27-2013, 01:23 PM

I just placed an order today for a complete hive that consists of 1 deep, 2 mediums, top cover, inner cover, bottom board with varroa insert, queen excluder, entrance reducer, and a hive strap. I ordered an additional deep, and a hive top feeder. The shipping was $29.10 and the total cost was $215.34. I had to pay sales tax since I live in PA. I saw these at the ABF Conference and, with the 10% off special this month, I thought I'd give them a try. If I like these, I may see if I can pick them up in the future since I'm about an hour away.

**libhart** · 01-27-2013, 01:34 PM

Right you are Rolande. His are more like the hives in the video with that raised lip on all the edges. He's a partner with modernbeekeeping in the UK, http://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/. I think they resell some Swienty equipment, I def know there's Swienty stuff mixed in there somewhere.

**Rolande** · 01-27-2013, 01:44 PM

Yeah you're right libhart, MB do sell some swienty stuff too. Not sure if your guy is going to stock the Keiler mini nucs (info available on the MB British website) but if he does they're quite a nice little unit (can be seen in use in some of the IWF videos).

http://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/it...thout-top-bars

**MelanieWoosley** · 01-27-2013, 04:21 PM

This lady has definitely done this a few hundred times! She's a machine!

**Acebird** · 01-28-2013, 06:13 AM

Originally Posted by Cleo C. Hogan Jr

Acebird... Yes that will work, however there is no certainty that the smoke will drive her to the bottom. If it does, and most of the brood is in the bottom box, and you have driven her down with smoke, she will be in the bottom box with most of your brood. If boxes above does not have viable eggs, that colony is doomed.

I prefer to find her, and with experience, it is not all that difficult.

I think it is but if I had the experience maybe not.

I played the odds ... I took a colony in the spring and split by the box in thirds. This will most likely give you a dud and it did so I dumped the dud and split by the box in half the colony that continued to expand veraciously. Only looking for two colonies I got three so my goals were met.

**Cleo C. Hogan Jr** · 01-28-2013, 07:43 AM

Acebird....After I wrote the post, I realized my situation is a little different from what you are describing. Most of my hives are single deeps, and are split two or more times each year to sell nucs. It is a lot easier to find the queen in just one deep, than in multiple deeps/with shallows. By the time the 10 frames have been divided into two boxes, a quick glance will normally find her. And as you said, there are so many different reasons people split their hives. Mine are almost entirely to make nucs for sale. Occasionally, I split a brood stock to reduce chances of swarming. Almost never just to increase my hive count.

In a walkaway split, I think the most important thing is to make sure there is new brood, viable eggs for making a queen, in each box/boxes, unless, you know where the queen is. If you do find her, I like to put some viable brood, and a couple of frames of chocolate brood in the queenless box, to keep the colony going until the new queen emerges and has mated, and made it back to the colony. In a walkaway, the most important thing to me is, keep an eye on both colonies until you KNOW for sure that they both have queens.

Thanks.

cchoganjr

**Nature Coast beek** · 01-28-2013, 07:49 AM

OP

What it's worth to ya, latest issue of ABJ has an in-depth article all about making splits.

**brooksbeefarm** · 01-28-2013, 08:02 AM

The lady made every move count which made it look easy, she showed no fear of the bees that made it look like she had her job to do and the bees had theirs.

I'm still confused as why the man in the truck never offered to help lift those 80 lb honey supers and stayed in the truck?but then again she lift and stacked them like there was nothing to it? The lady has True Grit.

**praxis178** · 01-28-2013, 06:14 PM

I have to agree that lady had it going on in spades! VERY cool to watch and realize just how far I yet have to go.....

Those supers (and brood boxes) looked like they were made out of Styrofoam or similar just how well does that put up with hard use like in a mobile/out yard style operation?