If a booming hive has 12 queen cells, they are about to swarm. I would do a cut down split asap. You probably do not want to leave more than two queen cells in the parent hive, or they may swarm anyway.
Shane
Is it too early for a cut down split?
I have a booming 3 deep hive going and the cherry blossom trees are now in the process of blooming. Cherry blossom honey is very rare here and will fetch a high price. I'm really trying to get the bees to harvest as much as they can. I've been reading about cut down splits and feel this is the answer for a good honey crop as we'll as a preventing swarming. This hive already has 10 or 12 queen cells in progress. They are not yet capped but they will be in the next couple of days. My question is this. Should I go ahead and do the cut down split? The temps are around mid 60's in the day and mid to low 40's at night. Is this too cool for a split?
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Shane
About the time those queen cells are capped the bees are going to do a split for you.
I would get the queen and a couple frames out today. I wouldent leave more than one or two of the swarm cells or you may have after swarms.
Your bees have made up their mind to swarm. You can't stop it you just have to control it.
I would get the queen and a couple frames out today. I wouldent leave more than one or two of the swarm cells or you may have after swarms.
Your bees have made up their mind to swarm. You can't stop it you just have to control it.
I almost did the split today. I stopped my self because we had some cloudy weather roll in. I'm going to make this spilt tomorrow morning!
Split out the queen! If there is enough brood, maybe 6 or more deep frames. I would make 2 or 3 frame nucs, basically split-out the entire hive. You won't have a harvest but will effectively increase your hive count.
Yeah, I would definitely move the queen and a few frames of bees to another location. Leave the old hive in the same location for the foragers to return to.Split out the queen! If there is enough brood, maybe 6 or more deep frames. I would make 2 or 3 frame nucs, basically split-out the entire hive. You won't have a harvest but will effectively increase your hive count.
If you leave only one or two queen cells and as many bees as possible in the old hive, I think you may get a harvest, too.
yeah, doubt it.Yeah, I would definitely move the queen and a few frames of bees to another location. Leave the old hive in the same location for the foragers to return to.
If you leave only one or two queen cells and as many bees as possible in the old hive, I think you may get a harvest, too.
This has been my experience also. The brood break frees up a lot of bees to become field bees.Yeah, I would definitely move the queen and a few frames of bees to another location. Leave the old hive in the same location for the foragers to return to.
If you leave only one or two queen cells and as many bees as possible in the old hive, I think you may get a harvest, too.
This has to be done at the start of the flow for best results but in your case it has to be done as soon as possible.
I made the split about 2 hours ago. I moved the queen most of the pollen and honey and also most of the open brood to a new hive in the same yard. In the parent hive, I left one frame of eggs , a honey frame and at least 6 frames of emerging and capped brood.This is called a cut down split. The emerging bees build out the foundation and soon become foragers. The existing foragers stop bringing in pollen because there are no open brood to feed and bring in lots of honey. The brood cycle is broken so any mite issues are solved and if all things go well you get a new queen. This is the first time for me to do this so I hope everything goes well. I'll keep you posted.
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