Had a chance to check the early split from twelve days ago. The split was quite for about an entire week with only a few bees flying. Suddenly after the first week the activity at the entrance increased big time, I'm guessing the house bees that came over with the split turned into field bees as the brood hatched. Four days ago I spotted pollen coming into he hive which made me curious as to what was going on, maybe a laying worker making drones. Set up a get together and inspection yesterday with two newer beekeepers who needed some more time in the bee yard and opened up all my hives.
The split was doing well and had three nicely developed queen cells on one frame, it was a little early to inspect the hive but I was relieved to see that the bees were making queens not drones. I rolled one Q cell that was on a separate frame which was a bummer cause I hoped to build a nuc with any extra cells that turned up. Hope I didn't injure the other queen cells.
I ended up moving another five frames of brood and honey out of the remaining hives to make a second early split which will be sold to one of the beekeepers who was helping. I'm keeping the second split in my yard for a month till it gets queen right and then letting him pick it up. Don't trust his level of experience to be able to pick up on problems yet. I also supered up my three main hives getting ready for the Saw Palmetto which will start soon.
My plan for April is to feed the splits, monitor my other three hives by peeking in the top looking for a honey flow and work on equipment. With three hives and the split working out I'm going to be close to max for equipment this year. Cautiously optimistic so far.
Topic: Early Split Followup (Read 1574 times)