Ok Beeks I need some opinions. I really, really, really want to make some splits. My situation is defiantly not a typical one. I have three hives that swarmed and have new laying queens and brood. I have a queen source lined up with new world carniolans for the middle july if I wish. I want to take one of these hives with three deeps and make three hives out of it. One with existing queen, and two with new queens. I am thinking of splitting up brood frames between the three boxes, making sure there is honey, pollen, brood and open drawn comb in all. I would put a queen excluder between each box so when it comes time to split I can easily tell which one has the queen in it. I would try to do this about 5 to 6 days before queen arivals. Then make splits, moving boxes for new queens to new location and introduce queens the following morning. I would move hives back after two weeks because I should have good nectar and pollen in my current site until the end of September or later.
I have no wishes for honey out of these colonies, only that they survive winter and make a crop next year. My real ambition is to learn, try the carniolan race of bees, and apiary growth. I dont mind feeding sugar water for a couple of weeks either if needed.
If this sounds like the dumbest Idea you have ever heard and has no chance for success then just say so. If there is a better way, then how?
I read this on beesourse.
Bee Culture – May, 2005
Hans-Otto Johnsen (Norway)
Quote
''In June at the earliest, when I have new laying queens, I make my main number of new colonies. Most of them could be described as artificial swarms. The goal is to have about 200-250 new colonies going into winter. If I succeed in making 250 colonies that all survive and no additional colonies of the old ones fail, I will increase the number of colonies by 150. But this will not be the case as some additional ones will fail of the old for different reasons, and some of the new ones will fail. Hopefully I will increase somewhat.
Artificial swarms and splits
The artificial swarms are made without brood frames and only with new foundation and a new laying queen. They are placed in a new apiary of their own with no old colonies. Now they just have to grow until autumn and be wintered. They will make good production colonies next season.
Some of the new colonies will be made later in the season due to a lack of newly mated queens. As you may understand I have to adjust to a very short and intense season and have to be somewhat flexible due to circumstances. Some new colonies will get a ripe queen cell, not a laying queen.
New colonies which I make later in season will have a number of brood frames, more the later they are done. It’s all about availability of queens how many of each type of new colonies are made. We don’t have easy to get big batches of new laying queens in Norway. Especially not of the breed I work with."
End Quote
It sounds like it should work?