Hello Folks,
My first split didn't go like I planned. I was going to take the queen and some brood/food and put them in a new hive. The parent hive is so full of bees and drone I couldn't find Mom. Last week when I inspected there were 14 queen cups and yesterday the cups had been enlarged to queen cells. Most of the cells were being worked/attended to but none were closed and even with a magnifying glass I couldn't see if they had eggs and jelly.
I doubt the swarm happened already because there hasn't been a noticeable change in numbers and I've been checking daily through the window. The bees were very calm too, my thinking is if they were queen less it would be different?
After not finding the queen (so much for plan A) I took three bars of brood at all stages, three bars of honey and pollen and put them in the new hive. I screened the entrance so they would stay put. There are 4 queen cells in the new colony too.
My plans are to pull the screen this morning and put some sticks/leaves over the entrance to encourage re-orienting. The new hive is 40 feet away from the old one. I don't have the option of moving the hive a few miles and I'm thinking if I loose a lot of bees to drift I can shake more in? Also I'm thinking the colony with out the queen should be a little cranky? Would it be a good idea to cull the queen cells in the queen right colony?
FWIW - there has been a flow going on since early Feb and the afternoon temps here are in the 80's.
This is one of two hives I started a year ago (my first) both wintered well and I believe they swarmed last fall while I was out of town for a couple of months.
Thanks for any insight, Bob.