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Author Topic: Split ?- Leave queen home or move to new hive?  (Read 2807 times)

Offline shoshannama

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Split ?- Leave queen home or move to new hive?
« on: June 21, 2015, 10:31:06 pm »
When making a split in a top bar hive, does it matter which way it is done?:
1. Find the queen and move her, along with several combs of brood, some honey and pollen and extra bees- and put an excluder over the entrance for a few days
OR
2. Find the queen, leave her in the hive, and establish new hive with a few combs that have fully developed and capped queen cells, honey, extra bees (same as above)

Leave the queen at home, or move her to a new hive? If she swarmed she would leave- so is moving her mimicking the nature of a swarm better?  Will the new hive with only queen cells and bees have less of a chance of succeeding if moved away?

How long should I give them before I check back to see if they raised a queen? How long do I wait before I give them more brood and another chance to raise a queen if the first time failed? What will make the bees stick around and keep trying to raise a queen- the pheremones in the brood? When is it a good idea to order a new queen? I can have one shipped from a reputable source on the other side of the island in 2 days?

Had an old-timer (who's not very old!) bee-keeper help me today and we left the queen at home and moved the queen cells to the new hive when we did the split. My mentor does it the other way.
shanna Rose
Just wondering...

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Split ?- Leave queen home or move to new hive?
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2015, 09:14:53 am »
>When making a split in a top bar hive, does it matter which way it is done?:
>1. Find the queen and move her, along with several combs of brood, some honey and pollen and extra bees- and put an excluder over the entrance for a few days
OR
>2. Find the queen, leave her in the hive, and establish new hive with a few combs that have fully developed and capped queen cells, honey, extra bees (same as above)'

The disadvantage to both of those is you have to find the queen.  If I find the queen I like to put her int he new location.  But I don't like to find the queen...
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Offline shoshannama

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Re: Split ?- Leave queen home or move to new hive?
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2015, 12:28:09 am »
Thanks for that Michael...
I ultimately solved my problem- or possible problem. The new hive without the queen but queen cells, and brood and stores would've certainly made their new queen, but I was concerned that the original hive where I left the queen at home would swarm.  It was quite full of brood and bees.  So I removed 5 combs with bees of capped and open brood and eggs, and 2 of nectar, honey and pollen and brought them over to add to the new hive. Then I removed most of the honey also.  So I shrunk it down to half, made sure there were no swarm cells, and am hoping she feels like she can stay home for a few months (while I go away!)with no need to swarm.

Next time I would just go ahead and move the queen to the new hive... but I'm sure there may be instances where it's easier to leave her be- like if you can't find her...

 

anything