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I think I need to do a 50/50 walk away split and don't want to this early. I went into my Russian hive yesterday evening just to see if I determine there is enough honey for them till the flow starts. There is still some but they will soon need to be fed. That is not the problem at all.
The problem is that it is full from the bottom board up through to the inner cover with brood with no room for them to grow. They had even connected the bottoms of the frames to the tops of the frames in the boxes under them with comb containing brood that ripped open when I separated the boxes. Because of this condition I think they could swarm anytime. Far as I know I don't think the honey-flow has even started yet in my area.
The hive is already stacked 5 boxes high, all 8 frame mediums. That's all I use. I put a 6th box on top containing some empty drawn comb with some honey from a hive I recently lost.
In hopes of stopping them from swarming and gaining another colony, I'm planing to do a 50/50 walk away split soon as possible. I just hope whichever half is left without a queen can and will produce another and she get mated as early as it is.
When I make the split I'm not going to know which half has the queen and which half doesn't, so there won't be buying another queen and putting in there.
The problem is that it is full from the bottom board up through to the inner cover with brood with no room for them to grow. They had even connected the bottoms of the frames to the tops of the frames in the boxes under them with comb containing brood that ripped open when I separated the boxes. Because of this condition I think they could swarm anytime. Far as I know I don't think the honey-flow has even started yet in my area.
The hive is already stacked 5 boxes high, all 8 frame mediums. That's all I use. I put a 6th box on top containing some empty drawn comb with some honey from a hive I recently lost.
In hopes of stopping them from swarming and gaining another colony, I'm planing to do a 50/50 walk away split soon as possible. I just hope whichever half is left without a queen can and will produce another and she get mated as early as it is.
When I make the split I'm not going to know which half has the queen and which half doesn't, so there won't be buying another queen and putting in there.