OK, So I had this big colony: 3 deeps plus 2 meds - absolutely packed with bees. I have been both opening the brood nest and modestly (because I have next to zero extra comb) checkerboarding in an attempt to keep them from swarming.
Steady run of a couple of queen cups every week or so over the six weeks or so. Today, about 6 or 7, all dry and removed.
Didn't see Queen Buttercup (as usual) on the way down through and was packing the stack up again and assorting the frames in order to add yet another deep, when I found her and quickly slapped on a push-in cage. Hooray! Now since I rarely see her I figured it was fated that today was the day and switched over to doing a cut-down.
My mind has been so packed with all the varieties of splits that I made an enormous, 180-degree, error:
I knew that the one w/o the queen had to have a frame with eggs or very young larva. I did that part right. It's a whole perfect frame of eggs. But I then made sure that the queen got almost all of the frames of capped brood. I think in my mind I was thinking that the capped brood would preoccupy her bees (less swarm) and of course, she could make more eggs as she has been doing like a champ.
But I realize now that I should have given her most of the OPEN brood (minus the frame with the doings to cook up a new queen) and the new colony all the capped brood. The queen got about 60 % of the capped honey and the rest went to the new colony. The open nectar went mostly to the new colony,which is now in two deeps and one medium. I made sure the open brood frames were well packed together and around the egg-frame to make them easy to cover - rather than slightly stretched out as I have been doing.
I care not one whit about making honey so the cut-down to increase honey production part of this type of split matters little. I am only interested in preventing swarming and doing a division of this too-large-to-manage colony.
I have the usual anxiety that I may have somehow doomed the original queen, her transfer off the frame of eggs didn't go quite as smoothly as I would have liked, but I know she is in the right box and I'm pretty sure she's OK, though I didn't see her after getting her in.
And I should have put the new colony in the old place, rather than beside it, but that is easily (HAH!) reversible tomorrow (or another day) to equalize the foragers.
But my main worry is the transposition of the capped and open brood thing. It seems to me that I have actually made the swarm risk HIGHER now that the queen will have all those soon to be hatched bees to fly with - and all the honey to leave behind.
This is such a big colony and by the time I was through I was enveloped in cloud of angry confused bees so I can't tell how well I've divided the total number of bees yet.
So what say you? Is this a catastrophe that must be fixed at first light? Or should I wait and see? Have I doomed my bees to failure or swarming or supercedure?
I started with three deeps and two mediums and I ended up with (by stretching and adding in every last scrap of comb) a TOTAL of five deeps and three mediums between the two colonies so I didn't completely double the space. But then I also probably killed a few hundred by accident, so there's that.
You know my grandmother at my age, 64, kept her spirits up with embroidery. What the heck am I doing hauling heavy deeps up and down a step ladder to divide my bees?
Please tell me the truth - though I can't help but say that I'm hoping that it's alright the way it is. I'll do whatever is necessary to remedy my screw-up. Remember, too, that I'm not interested in honey so if this messes up production, that's OK. I only want to keep Queen B alive and living in her lovely yellow house and to brew up another one of her daughters.
Thanks a million for your advice.
Enj.
Steady run of a couple of queen cups every week or so over the six weeks or so. Today, about 6 or 7, all dry and removed.
Didn't see Queen Buttercup (as usual) on the way down through and was packing the stack up again and assorting the frames in order to add yet another deep, when I found her and quickly slapped on a push-in cage. Hooray! Now since I rarely see her I figured it was fated that today was the day and switched over to doing a cut-down.
My mind has been so packed with all the varieties of splits that I made an enormous, 180-degree, error:
I knew that the one w/o the queen had to have a frame with eggs or very young larva. I did that part right. It's a whole perfect frame of eggs. But I then made sure that the queen got almost all of the frames of capped brood. I think in my mind I was thinking that the capped brood would preoccupy her bees (less swarm) and of course, she could make more eggs as she has been doing like a champ.
But I realize now that I should have given her most of the OPEN brood (minus the frame with the doings to cook up a new queen) and the new colony all the capped brood. The queen got about 60 % of the capped honey and the rest went to the new colony. The open nectar went mostly to the new colony,which is now in two deeps and one medium. I made sure the open brood frames were well packed together and around the egg-frame to make them easy to cover - rather than slightly stretched out as I have been doing.
I care not one whit about making honey so the cut-down to increase honey production part of this type of split matters little. I am only interested in preventing swarming and doing a division of this too-large-to-manage colony.
I have the usual anxiety that I may have somehow doomed the original queen, her transfer off the frame of eggs didn't go quite as smoothly as I would have liked, but I know she is in the right box and I'm pretty sure she's OK, though I didn't see her after getting her in.
And I should have put the new colony in the old place, rather than beside it, but that is easily (HAH!) reversible tomorrow (or another day) to equalize the foragers.
But my main worry is the transposition of the capped and open brood thing. It seems to me that I have actually made the swarm risk HIGHER now that the queen will have all those soon to be hatched bees to fly with - and all the honey to leave behind.
This is such a big colony and by the time I was through I was enveloped in cloud of angry confused bees so I can't tell how well I've divided the total number of bees yet.
So what say you? Is this a catastrophe that must be fixed at first light? Or should I wait and see? Have I doomed my bees to failure or swarming or supercedure?
I started with three deeps and two mediums and I ended up with (by stretching and adding in every last scrap of comb) a TOTAL of five deeps and three mediums between the two colonies so I didn't completely double the space. But then I also probably killed a few hundred by accident, so there's that.
You know my grandmother at my age, 64, kept her spirits up with embroidery. What the heck am I doing hauling heavy deeps up and down a step ladder to divide my bees?
Please tell me the truth - though I can't help but say that I'm hoping that it's alright the way it is. I'll do whatever is necessary to remedy my screw-up. Remember, too, that I'm not interested in honey so if this messes up production, that's OK. I only want to keep Queen B alive and living in her lovely yellow house and to brew up another one of her daughters.
Thanks a million for your advice.
Enj.