splitting....too soon?

[NewJoe]

when does everyone think I can make a split in Eastern NC? I have only one hive, checked it today....it is packed with bees and brood and still some honey and pollen. I want to make a split and let the main hive make a new queen. Is it too early in the year to make a successful split? Oh ...I have never tried to split before. Please...any advice is welcome!

[NGAnderson]

In theory, you can begin splitting hives as soon as you have drone brood with purple eyes. This observation suggests that other colonies in your area should be at about the same stage of drone rearing, and that it is likely that there will be mature drones for your new queen to mate with once she emerges.
However, some suggest waiting until the week before the earliest swarm date for your local area to get the best results.
Hopefully, a experienced beekeeper from your area will respond.

Best regards,
Garrett

[Edward Greene]

I'm in western carolina and wondering the same thing. Mine came from a spit in late march and there was drones and 2 queen cell in my box. He cut away the queen cells off the frames he keep with the queen. I no its early here but my bees are realy working hard. Do you have drones or drone cell? If so your close.

[hpm08161947]

If you are in eastern NC, then you are getting pretty close. Plenty of drone larvae here.... thinking mid march for myself....

[psfred]

I suspect you have a better chance of getting a well mated queen quickly if you wait until you have drones flying, but any time you see drones in the hive you can do splits. Too early, and you risk your new queen taking a long time to get well mated, and possibly being past the correct age to get mated, ending up with a drone layer next spring if she runs out.

Move the existing queen into the split and notch some cells with eggs in them in the parent hive so the bees can raise a nice queen.

Peter

[Joel]

In addition to what has been mentioned, I always like to look at night temperatures when I'm doing a split - nothing like a nice cool 40F night to chill brood when a split cluster can't cover. Doing an over under split over a double screen board will help as the rising heat will benefit the uppe and you can leave a few more in the bottom to cover brood.

[BMAC]

thats sound advice. chilled brood sucks.

[deknow]

You also have to do some bee math. If you figure a growing colony can double the amount of capped brood in 3 weeks, you might decide to wait a few weeks.
If you have 4 frames of brood and make a split, each half ends up with 2 frames of brood. 3 weeks later, you have 4 frames of brood in each half, 6 weeks 8 frames.

If you wait to do the split 3 more weeks until they have 8 frames of brood, you can make a much stronger split of 3 frames of brood and leave 5 with the parent colony, in 3 weeks you have 10 and 6 (instead of 4 and 4).....that's 3 weeks well spent.

Deknow

[jim lyon]

If you are in eastern NC, then you are getting pretty close. Plenty of drone larvae here.... thinking mid march for myself....

Listen to the ole "voice of experience". Also don't make them up too small. 3 combs minimum in a full sized hive body I would think.

[NewJoe]

well I did see a few drones on the frames. they looked like possibly survivors from last fall. There was 4 deep frames and 2 medium frames that were mostly capped brood. two medium frames completely capped honey, a couple of empty frames and the other six frames were just partially filled with some honey and pollen......and every frame was covered with bees. I think it's too early to split because last night was near freezing, but man I hope I can catch them before they swarm.

[NCbeek]

I think you are still about three to four weeks away from a split. Last year I did a split in Feb because it was unusually warm. Mid to late March is better. You'll see the hives explode with workers and drones. That's when it's safe to split. Just make sure you have enough pollen honey and nurses to go into it.

[Rob-bee]

Well I am just one county over "Wayne County" and my main concern in Feb. and early March is making sure they have enough feed. As you well know we always have a cold snap just when you think spring is here. I was in my hives a few days ago and saw a few drones, but the girls were light on feed so I mixed up some dough like sugar patties and mixed in some pollen patties and laid it across the top. And the girls went on it like a badger on a beefsteak. I would not even consider a split for at least a few weeks and then maybe not even then if the weather doesn't cooperate.

[heaflaw]

Anything wrong with making a split early and confining them in a nuc box in a room that will be kept above 40 degrees at night until the queen emerges?

[sfisher]

You could make the split and buy a queen, then you wont have to worry about drones, and you will have some time for build up before the flow.