[sparks2142]

Hi all! I live in central florida and heard that splitting a hive and not re-queening the second hive, that there is a 100% chance of getting an AHB queen. Is that true? I'd love to do a split next spring and I thought it'd be fun to allow nature to takes it's course - but is it worth the risk?

 

[jkirby]

My thoughts,
split hive, queen goes with new split. mother colony raises new queen from brood laid by afore mentioned queen, new queen and old queen are of same breed. new queen breeds with AHB drones and any resulting queens produced from her brood will have AHB genetics. I AM NOT an expert so.....

 

[sparks2142]

Exactly! That's my understanding. What I'm curious about is the percentage that the queen will get a AHB drone in central florida...
100% or maybe 50% ? Just wondering if I can try a natural split or always replace the queen.

 

[jkirby]

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240097
Sparks, try this link maybe it'll be helpful. far as percentages go your guess is as good as mine but I'd guess that sooner or later you'll get some AHB mated queens

 

[fish_stix]

sparks; just make your split and don't worry about the AHB. I live just east of you in Palm Bay. AHB are not the problem that some would have you believe. There are a lot of commercial and hobby beekeepers in FL who are still operating normally. If you get a hot queen just requeen. We've had no problems over here and we split our hives 3 times per year and use cells for splits and for requeening. If there are that many AHB drones around as you've been told, our queens are sure not able to find them.

 

[sparks2142]

Awesome! Thanks fish... I wanted to take the chance and see what happens naturally, but I also wanted to be responsible. If you're not having issues, then I'll give it a shot

 

[suttonbeeman]

Sparks...I make 100's of splits about 65 miles south of Orlando..about 2-3 out of 100 hav a temper problem. I work bees with NO golves...use once in las year...and that was netting semi. As of now you wont have any problem next spring...10 yrs from now wait and see.