[jbraun]

I plan on splitting 2 hives and keeping 2 hives strong. My question is when you move frames around do you switch a center frame with an outer frame? This is to break the honey bound brood chamber and make them think that they don't need to swarm this year, right?

As I was posting this I thought I could just remove 1 or 2 frames from each hive to make another nuc.

This will be the first time I try swarm management and I'm still a little unsure of what to do. Your help would be much appreciated.

 

[Duncan Thacker]

A bit more info would be required in order to give you accurate info. I assume because you say "frames" you are using Langs. How are you running them? How many hives will you start with before you split, just the 4? Why are you worried about a honey bound situation?

 

[rweaver7777]

From what I've read (and am going to implement this year), as long as you provide a path of empty drawn comb up into the box above, you will minimize and perhaps eliminate swarming, IF you do this manipulation soon enough.

If the bees then fill this comb with nectar, you will have the same situation again, so replace it again with drawn comb.

I recommend reading Walt Wright's treatise on Swarm Prevention.

http://www.k4vb.com/all walt articles.htm

 

[jbraun]

Duncan, yes I'm using 10 frame langstrom deeps. I have 4 hives this year. Last year I split my 2 hives to late and missed a lot of the flow in my area and ended up with 4 double deeps. Not wanting no honey again this year I'm only going to split 2 of my 4 Hives. I'm going by Walt Wrights talks about swarm prevention, that's why I'm concerned with honey bound brood chamber.

rweaver, I must have missed that info in Walts treatise. What I came away with was you needed to swap say 3 and 5 to break up the honey bound situation. But, if you put in a drawn comb that would break the honey bound area. I'm in the St Louis area and it looks like March 21st to April 1 will be right in my area. Good Luck to you.

 

[Michael Bush]

>Duncan, yes I'm using 10 frame langstrom deeps.

There is no such thing as a "langstrom". It's a Langstroth, as in L.L. Langstroth. Does langstrom word come from a spell checker? I can't figure out where it comes from but the error comes up often.

>My question is when you move frames around do you switch a center frame with an outer frame? This is to break the honey bound brood chamber and make them think that they don't need to swarm this year, right?

You can switch an empty frame with one from the broodnest. It doesn't matter where the empty one came from. The one with brood needs to be adjacent to the brood nest, whether it's beside, above or below.

>As I was posting this I thought I could just remove 1 or 2 frames from each hive to make another nuc.

The issue then is where will the queen come from. 1 or 2 frames of bees can't adequately feed a queen. If you give them a queen, it will work. If you take the queen from the hive, the effect will vary depending on the timing of this action. Two weeks before the flow, removing the queen can increase production. Too much earlier than that and it will decrease production. Too much later than that and it will have an affect on the age of the bees going into winter.

 

[jbraun]

Michael Bush. My Bad. The error is mine. I'll have to remember to spell his name correctly.

I thought that Walt Wright suggested that you move frame 3 to frame 5's spot to break the honey band. Did I get that wrong? I'll go back and reread to find out. I thought he said that so you weren't left with those extra frames of brood and needing another queen.

 

[Michael Bush]

>Did I get that wrong?

I can't say, I don't know if I read that.

I don't mean to harp, but a common mistake that gets repeated enough times becomes a more common mistake... and "Langstrom" seems to turn up a lot. Why, is still a mystery to me...

 

[jbraun]

After going through Walt Wrights posts briefly, I think I'll just checkerboard my 2 colonies I want to expand. I couldn't find what I was looking for. Also I think I'm mixing up Walt Wright's work and Mel Disselhoen? work.

 

[Wadep4186]

I plan on splitting 2 hives and keeping 2 hives strong. My question is when you move frames around do you switch a center frame with an outer frame? This is to break the honey bound brood chamber and make them think that they don't need to swarm this year, right?

As I was posting this I thought I could just remove 1 or 2 frames from each hive to make another nuc.

This will be the first time I try swarm management and I'm still a little unsure of what to do. Your help would be much appreciated.

hi I like to take a super frame and put it in the brood chamber and let them pull comb down and if they make Drones they are going to swarm. they only need drones to mate queens . and they will make them be for they swarm

 

[burns375]

Alot of confusion here. To prevent swarming without splitting. Super early, reverse the deeps, if the brood nest is congested remove honey and add a few blank frames in the brood nest (known as checkerboarding)


Splitting is a little more complicated than you make it sounds. If you plan to do an emergency split, I would remove a few frames of capped brood, maybe some pollen and honey ALONG WITH THE QUEEN and put them in a new box, ideally move to a new site. This is a very small split but should grow just fine with a little help from the beekeeper. Now let the original hive now queenless raise a new queen. If you have alot of old comb you can help them raise queen cells by "notching" the comb around eggs and 1-day old larva, essentially tearing away the bottom of the cells. If they raise many queen cells you can split them out into a few more nucs, remember the flying bees will most likely return home. This is best done during the main flow or in a strong hive in spring

Or you can just do a 50/50 split, take 1 of the 2 deeps and put it on a new bottom board. In 10 or so days check for queen cells.