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Author Topic: Too late to split a hive?  (Read 2504 times)

Offline Wocky

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Too late to split a hive?
« on: March 15, 2020, 07:14:31 am »
One of my hives (Langstroth) seemed to be dwindling, with no new brood (so the queen was gone;) I bought a new queen (which arrived Friday), but when I went to install her, I found the hive empty except for some wax moth. I've cleaned the wax moth up, but now I've got a queen bee and no hive to add her to.

I've got a top-bar hive that's very healthy, and was thinking of taking some young workers from that and using them to start a new hive with the new queen. The bars in the top-bar are not the same size as the frames in the Langstroth, so I can't just take some frames from it. I  can give the new colony some food, in the form of either crystallised honey or sugar syrup, but it's getting very late in the season to be splitting a hive. The bees would have to build comb for the queen's eggs, too.

Is it too late to start the new colony?

Offline Milo

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Re: Too late to split a hive?
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2020, 08:59:07 am »
Could you cut some brood comb from some of the top bars to fit the frames of the langy?

Rubber band them in and shake some nurse bees over it?

Offline KellyBeeFriendly

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Re: Too late to split a hive?
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2020, 05:37:04 am »
Curious to know what you did?

I know one method for late and over wintered splits is called a double screen board (Snelgrove board) which allows a split to share warmth as they sit above a strong hive, but are separated by the double screen so they don?t fight. Apparently it works, I plan to try the technique in spring to prevent swarming and have faster buildup for the flow.

This info is probably too late for you, But curious to know What you did and how you fared - always something to learn from others. :-) K
Keep Calm and Keep Bees