Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS => Topic started by: Dvash on October 21, 2009, 08:30:57 am

Title: My first split
Post by: Dvash on October 21, 2009, 08:30:57 am

I am getting ready to do my first split tomorrow morning. I live in Israel and this is the time most beekeepers do splits. Winter here is December & January and by the end of January there is growth in the hives. The first nectar flow is April May.
I need to move the two hives so I thought this might be an ideal time to do the splits. I would appreciate it is someone could comment on what I have planned:

• Put a screened opening on the two hives and load them in my van.
• Travel to another spot, about 6 miles away, where I already have one active hive.
• Find the queen and put her in a matchbox.
• Open the hive and divide the 10 frames between two nucs.
• Turn the nucs so the entrances face different directions.
  
• Fill the inner feeder with 1:1 syrup.
• Insert the matchbox with the queen (leaving the drawer open about 1/4 inch) into place into one of nucs between frames.
• Close up and repeat the procedure with the 2nd hive.
• Return in 24 hours and introduce the queens I purchased today.

How can I make sure I get the foraging bees before they leave in the morning? If I start at 8:00 a.m. will that be early enough?

Since I will likely have 10 full frames in each colony, can I use four and four and take two frames from each of the colonies to make a fifth nuc?

Is there anything else I can do to ensure that by the time we have a nectar flow I will have a full colony ready for making honey or should I assume that no matter what I do, the new colony from the nuc will not produce much honey during the 1st nectar flow?

Thanks.
 

Title: Re: My first split
Post by: fish_stix on October 22, 2009, 10:54:35 pm

Dvash; the only way to keep all the foragers is to screen the entrances after all the bees are "home", at night. I would screen them the night before moving them. Since you're moving them 6 miles, there's also no need to face the entrances in opposite directions; the bees will reorient themselves to the new location and new box when they start flying. You can also just leave the queen in one of the boxes while doing the split; just find her so you know which box she's in. ;)