[sgwjr1979]

if I see queen cells and have a strong enough colony, can I split the colony and put the brood frame with the queen cells in the new colony and let them raise a new queen or do I need to buy a new queen for the new colony? I'm a LITTLE BIT confused by the whole splitting and requeening thing.

 

[Ted n Ms]

Yes you can move the frame with cells. I would put it in a 5 frame nuc with 2 frames of sealed brood, a frame of honey and pollen and a couple shakes of bees and feed feed feed. Just make sure you don't you don't move the queen. Oh and don't leave any empty space give atleast one frame of foundation.

 

[sgwjr1979]

so I SHOULD leave empty space or I SHOULDN'T leave any empty space?

 

[concrete-bees]

you want to leave her room to lay eggs or she will swarm again

but seeing swarms cell is about the only sign you get - after that its too late

 

[sgwjr1979]

so ok...what about taking one of my brood chambers off and making sure she's not on it and just setting that up with the queen cell in a new hive with a nice start of bees?

 

[concrete-bees]

that will work just fine - thats the walk-a-way split method

ive done that a lot and seems to work but its slow going and i would only say to do it before june - any later and you are just wasting time -

it takes a few days for the queen to hatch, then a week to mate(could be longer), and hopes that she makes it back home - then for her to start laying - the 21 more days for those eggs to be walking bees - another week until they leave the hive ... this process can delay honey production up to 6 weeks in some cases - but if you have a few hives and want to (play) with the bees and learn how the process works - go for it !!!!

 

[sgwjr1979]

Well that was informative! thanks!

 

[Ted n Ms]

so I SHOULD leave empty space or I SHOULDN'T leave any empty space?

I'm sorry I left out the word don't. Don't leave an empty space.

 

[sgwjr1979]

Thanks Ted...that's what I assumed.

 

[Dirtyt3]

Question What would you do in this case. All 10 hives started queen cells just after the first egg laying of the spring. Little or no new brood bees, Large but spotty brood patterns, and stopped laying in preparation for the swarm season. 10 to 20 cells from top to bottum in all hives. The hives are strong but not ready as the first of the honey flow of 12-14 weeks has already started. So splits wasn"t a question in getting a good honey corp. I removed all queen cells but one including mother queen her self and requeened other hives with the best stocks of left over queen cells of best size. Did I do good or not. These critters went stupid to early to recover I think. DirtyT3