NewBee to BeeSource Forum (Alabama)

1199 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Rader Sidetrack, Mar 24, 2014

David H

Discussion Starter · Mar 23, 2014

New to Bee Source and the forum. I have read some of the post through google searches and decided to join. I have been beekeeping for a whole year now. Very limited knowledge but willing to help anyone that I can. I will probably get more than what I can give right now though. I decided yesterday to open the hives for inspection, I have only 2. The girls have really been active here in central Alabama with all the warm weather. Being the first year I left the honey supers on the hives so they would have their own food source. I did have to put a sugar board on one hive because I felt they did not have enough stores to get them through the winter. Upon inspection of both hives I found that I now have a lot of brood being reared in my honey supers. I pulled a few frames out and I have a lot of queen cells built. A few of these got destroyed when I removed the frames. OOPs??? Being new to this, my first spring after winter, I just stopped the inspection and put the hives back together. Not sure exactly what I should do or how I should proceed. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

David

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Rader Sidetrack

· #2 · Mar 23, 2014

Welcome to Beesource!

One option for hives with queen cells is to split the hives.

More hives is good, right?

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BeeNurse

· #3 · Mar 23, 2014

I am having trouble finding out how to post a question, Help would be appreciated. I wish to install two packages, and split off a measure of each, into a Nuc, with a Queen. Will this work, I like the idea of three hives for the price of two and a queen.

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Rader Sidetrack

· #4 · Mar 23, 2014 (Edited)

BeeNurse - Putting 2 lbs of bees (instead of 3 lbs) into each hive + adding another queen CAN work. However, for a new beekeeper I think it might be better to install those packages into 2 hives, then later take a portion of bees, comb and brood from both hives and use those resources + a purchased queen to create a 3rd hive.

If you feel adventuresome at that point you could let them raise their own queen.

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AmericasBeekeeper

· #5 · Mar 23, 2014

Welcome David! Destroyed queen cells do not make good splits. I am not sure what Radar is thinking.
BN splitting two packages into three hives is how you say -- CHEAP. You will reap what you sow, three weak hives that may not make it through winter.

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David H

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 24, 2014

Thanks for the info. I took what radar was saying to mean that I could take frames with good queen cells and make splits. I am new to this and I will research. Not sure if I want to venture that far yet without someone right there to show me what to do. My concern now is the brood being reared in my supers. As far as what I have read I should just let it alone. I have on both hives 1 deep brood chamber and medium supers, 2 on each hive. I wanted to add another brood chamber this year. I was doing an inspection to check the brood chambers but didn't get that far due to my findings. Just trying to get some advice on which direction to go.

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Rader Sidetrack

· #7 · Mar 24, 2014 (Edited)

Sorry, there are two newbies with questions on this thread.

I should know better than to not make it clear who I was referring to.

My post #4 was directed to BeeNurse in post #3.

Post #2 was directed to David H. One source of info on split options is Michael Bush's site:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm

> I am having trouble finding out how to post a question, Help would be appreciated.

BeeNurse, for one way to start a new thread, navigate to the main page of the forum you wish to post in, the look for the "Post a New Thread" button near the very bottom of the page on the left side.

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