I am going to be making my first splits. I had two of my four hives die over the winter. The remaining two hives consisting of two deeps are very strong. I would like any comments/opinions on my plans.
Last week I added a deep with alternating empty and honey frames on top of each hive primarily because both hives were very light on stores, yes it's been a long cold winter.
I am expecting my queen to move up and start laying in the empty frames. I know the flow won't start around here until May, so the frames I added last week hopefully won't start to be used to store nectar, and will contain brood. In mid-April I plan to pull frames of brood and shake off any bees. I then plan to add these frames to another single deep, along with frames of honey/pollen. I plan to place these frames on top of a queen excluder and wait about two hours. I then plan to pull of the top deep and set it on a separate hivestand, and introduce a queen, reduce the entrance, and feed.
This sounds too easy, am I missing something?
Last week I added a deep with alternating empty and honey frames on top of each hive primarily because both hives were very light on stores, yes it's been a long cold winter.
I am expecting my queen to move up and start laying in the empty frames. I know the flow won't start around here until May, so the frames I added last week hopefully won't start to be used to store nectar, and will contain brood. In mid-April I plan to pull frames of brood and shake off any bees. I then plan to add these frames to another single deep, along with frames of honey/pollen. I plan to place these frames on top of a queen excluder and wait about two hours. I then plan to pull of the top deep and set it on a separate hivestand, and introduce a queen, reduce the entrance, and feed.
This sounds too easy, am I missing something?