[borncamp]

Hello, I went to perform a cut down split yesterday in Buffalo, NY. I noticed that there were very few numbers of open brood or eggs. There was plenty of capped brood, honey, and pollen. Open brood was limited to maybe one 4 inch diameter section on two frames. I went ahead and tried to do a split anyway leaving some of the open brood with the capped brood.

I'm wondering if there are any rules of thumb for performing a cut down split regarding the number of open brood?

In this situation did I perform the split too early, too late? How much of a benefit is there really going to be in terms of no longer having to take care of such a minimal amount of brood?

-Thanks, Brian

 

[Kelly Livingston]

Brian,
I can only speak to my area but I think since im much south of you, that you did the split t oo early. Im considering a cut down split here in md since our flow here starts in a week or two. Everything is delayed 3-4weeks due to a longer winter. Also you only take open brood because they won't hatch out in time for peak flow but dont forget to leave 1 frame of eggs when you take the queen.
Good luck!
Kelly

 

[Michael Bush]

Sounds like they are about to swarm. You can give the new split some emerging brood to help them out. One of the concepts of a "cut down" is the "cut down"--meaning you remove at least some of the brood boxes and crowd the bees up into the supers. So however you have to do that, give the new split a box worth of combs. Some can be honey and pollen and some can be open brood and fill the rest in with what you have...

 

[borncamp]

Hello everyone, thanks for the response. Some remarks that might be helpful.

Kelly: That makes sense. You might find some flower based benchmarks informative regarding my region.
The Dandelions have been in full bloom for a week or two now. The tulip and daffodils have also been out for awhile. Pear, Cherry, and a number of other trees are in bloom, but I couldn't tell you their names. Basswood isn't out yet, but If I remember correctly that comes out much later in early summer.

Michael: Your remark about swarming was my intuition as well. I filled in the split with frames of mostly pollen and honey that I pulled out from the parent. I did put an empty super on the parent. There was some capped brood tossed in the split as well since it was on the same frame as the open brood.

I imagine everything will work out fine at the end of the year. Just had some general curiosity about how everything worked.

 

[Michael Bush]

If you are doing bee work and everything is exactly like "the book" you're probably doing something wrong.