Hi Guys,
I'm wondering about beehive populations after an early spring Split and then recombine in Summer in time for the main flow, verses the populations when using methods to open the broodnest.
Opening the broodnest and other spring management methods such as Checkerboarding or Pyramiding Up are known to produce larger populations, but spilts mean there are two queens laying, so possibly a larger population as well. (Given that two queen hives are known to have about double the number of bees of a typical hive.) But doing a split means you need to overwinter a queen in a nuc or order a queen in from interstate for best results.
By what I've seen, to open the broodnest you really need to use drawn empty comb, but if you haven't got drawn comb, the next best option is to do a spilt. So does this produce an equivalent population when recombined?
Your comments, experiences?
Thanks
Matthew Davey
I'm wondering about beehive populations after an early spring Split and then recombine in Summer in time for the main flow, verses the populations when using methods to open the broodnest.
Opening the broodnest and other spring management methods such as Checkerboarding or Pyramiding Up are known to produce larger populations, but spilts mean there are two queens laying, so possibly a larger population as well. (Given that two queen hives are known to have about double the number of bees of a typical hive.) But doing a split means you need to overwinter a queen in a nuc or order a queen in from interstate for best results.
By what I've seen, to open the broodnest you really need to use drawn empty comb, but if you haven't got drawn comb, the next best option is to do a spilt. So does this produce an equivalent population when recombined?
Your comments, experiences?
Thanks
Matthew Davey