[Bee Whisperer]

I have a packed hive of two deeps and a super; all filled with brood and some honey. Can I take the queen, and a few frames of brood from one deep and make a new hive? Will the original colony make a new queen?

 

[No-sage]

Sure. Take the queen, some open and some emerging brood, some honey and pollen and move them away.

If you want the foragers, move the old hive away and leave the queen and new hive in the old location.

 

[heaflaw]

What is the best way to split and still get a surplus of honey, assuming the flow will start in less than a month?

 

[pannu96]

If you have a packed hive and want to prevent swarming and still get honey, then take the queen away with a nuc (3 -4 frames) split and let the colony raise their own. It will take them some time, and the population will remain stable. Then, by the time the flow starts, the new queen will begin laying and the workers will store honey.

 

[Bee Whisperer]

Thank you.

 

[Brad Bee]

Using this method to split, do you need to notch (OTS method) the comb to get a better queen, or will emergency queen cells made flat off the face still produce high quality queens?

 

[Wolfer]

IMO this is the best way to do a split. However I believe it's too early to get a queen mated properly.
I've raised several early and they all failed before fall. Per Walter Kelly's instructions I now won't try to raise one until the blackberries bloom where I am.

I've had good luck with this timing no matter what the calendar or the thermometer says.

Every queen I have that's near a year old goes in a nuc at the blackberry bloom. To prevent swarming until then I just make sure to keep some room in the brood nest. If I have to put on an extra deep or give some brood to another hive. Great, this means I have a good queen.

Once in the nuc she thinks she's swarmed and the old hive won't swarm with a new queen but will put up a lot of honey.

Once they build queen cells I wouldent leave more than two in the hive. The others can be used in mating nucs or thrown away but if you leave them it could cause some to swarm. Doesn't always but it could.
Woody Roberts

 

[Wolfer]

Using this method to split, do you need to notch (OTS method) the comb to get a better queen, or will emergency queen cells made flat off the face still produce high quality queens?

I never notch

 

[CtyAcres]

Brad Bee, Yes you will need to notch, unless you have fairly new comb. The cells are usually too tough for the bees to
break down, so emergency type queens tend to be not of excellent quality. Harry Laidlaw mentions removing the cell
below the larva also, to obtain a higher quality queen in his book.

 

[heaflaw]

Good advice Pannu and Wolfer.

I have a double deep that has queen cells with eggs and royal jelly. I plan to split out the queen tommorrow. I want to make several nucs once the QCs are capped. I seem to have a lot of drones for this time of year(don't know why), so I think I'll be okay. Blackberry bloom is another week or 2 away.

 

[Wolfer]

I never notch

I better clarify. I don't ever notch but I'm always starting nucs. I'm foundationless mostly and there's always a fresh drawn frame in my brood nest. This is the frame that will have the cells on it.

I can see where if all they had was older dark comb it would need to be notched.