if you wait until the bees build swarm cells they will probably swarm even if you split.
What I do is this: Take two frames of brood with attached bees, one frame of Honey and pollen, and two empty frames place them in a nuc, with the queen. close it up and that is our split. I like to move it to an out yard to prevent foragers from drifting back to the parent hive.
I replace the stolen frames with undrawn frames on the outboard. In 3 days you will have queen cells. I tear down or harvest all but 3. When the queen hatches she will take over as ruler of that hive. by doing it in this way the bees usually do not swarm, and your honey production is not harmed.
Meanwhile the nuc is ruled by a queen that you know is a good producer, and will strengthen quickly.
What I do is this: Take two frames of brood with attached bees, one frame of Honey and pollen, and two empty frames place them in a nuc, with the queen. close it up and that is our split. I like to move it to an out yard to prevent foragers from drifting back to the parent hive.
I replace the stolen frames with undrawn frames on the outboard. In 3 days you will have queen cells. I tear down or harvest all but 3. When the queen hatches she will take over as ruler of that hive. by doing it in this way the bees usually do not swarm, and your honey production is not harmed.
Meanwhile the nuc is ruled by a queen that you know is a good producer, and will strengthen quickly.