Did my first split last week and tried the walkaway split where the new hive will hopefully make a new queen. Split half new brood, pollen and honey frames between boxes and put a feeder inside each setup and put the boxes side by side with an entrance reducer to lower robber bees. Could not find queen. First couple of days very few bees outside new hive and old hive looked like normal. The last 2 days almost no activity outside the new hive. Is that normal? Yesterday I opened both hives and both of them have full frames full of bees and everything looked good. Did not want to disturb them too much since it was 102 so I did not check the frames for new queen cells. Just wondering if it was normal for no activity outside the new split.
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Not abnormal. Field bees stuck with old location. Bees shift activities somewhat depending on needs. Yours are getting forage from inside and do not need pollen right now. It will balance out over time.
Well it's been 2 weeks since I did my split. No queens in either one. Must of lost the queen when I did my split. Split new hive has lots of bees but no queen cells and hive has a bunch of bees that are not happy. Smoke did nothing to calm them. Original hive had 6 queen cells and lots of honey, pollen but no eggs etc. Took 2 queen cells from that one and put into the other hive. Hopefully that works. If not I guess I will get another package of them next year and try again.
:-(
:-(
You should find old queen cells in both hives or new larva if the queen was in one of the splits. You are not quite out of the laying window if it has been 14 days since the split. If you use the hatch day as split day you are at 28 days now.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm
It's been 17 days since split. Added another quart of sugar water to each which I put on the inside of an empty box on top . Original hive looks normal. Bees bringing in a lot of pollen in the morning and early afternoon. Last three hours of daylight lost of bees flying around the hive coming and going but it does not look like they are fighting.
New split hive - added a couple of queen cells from main hive last week but did not check on them. A few bees are going out and bringing in the pollen but not as many as the original hive. Very little activity on the outside of the hive. On the top box where my feeder is I have a screen on both sides so I can watch what is going on inside. On this hive on the top box where the feeder is there are hundreds of bees bouncing off the screen and swarming inside like someone just hit their hive with a bat. This goes on from the time the sun comes up till it goes down. Can't be robber bees since there is no activity at the entrance. Is this normal while they are trying to make a queen?
New split hive - added a couple of queen cells from main hive last week but did not check on them. A few bees are going out and bringing in the pollen but not as many as the original hive. Very little activity on the outside of the hive. On the top box where my feeder is I have a screen on both sides so I can watch what is going on inside. On this hive on the top box where the feeder is there are hundreds of bees bouncing off the screen and swarming inside like someone just hit their hive with a bat. This goes on from the time the sun comes up till it goes down. Can't be robber bees since there is no activity at the entrance. Is this normal while they are trying to make a queen?
At 17 days from split you should be at the un-mated ,non-laying queen stage. Added queen cells are an unknown age so that schedule is vague but they would not be laying yet.
Bees need to be left alone while requeening. Three weeks after split is a general rule before inspecting.
The bees are simply telling you they need quiet, that is they would like to sting you until you stop watching them.
Date confusion quickly sets in if you do not write the date down or mark a calendar.
Bees need to be left alone while requeening. Three weeks after split is a general rule before inspecting.
The bees are simply telling you they need quiet, that is they would like to sting you until you stop watching them.
Date confusion quickly sets in if you do not write the date down or mark a calendar.
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