splitting without finding a queen

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pbemtb

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Is there any way to split a hive without having to be able to find and mark the Queen first ?? have tried to find her but she's proving elusive even though i know she's laying. As i have only the one hive its provong an obstacle to me
 
Why do you want to make a split?

If you have a queen cell and want to make another colony, you could clear a few frames of bees, put them in a brood box with a Queen cell, then replace the removed frames with empty ones, fit a queen excluder, the house bees will move up and leave the Queen "downstairs", then after a few hours, move the new brood box with the house bees, any flyers will go back to the hive. Make sure you put some brood, pollen, and stores with the new brood box.
 
Arbitrarily split the colony into two or three equal parts.into nucs and move to an out apiary to prevent bees returning to the original hive site. One part should continue as normal with the queen laying, the other one or two parts should create queen cells from suitable young brood as they realise that they are queenless.

Ensure that in your split that each part has suitable eggs or very young brood (about the size or a comma in a newspaper)

After three or four days select a nice big juicy open queen cell well provisioned with royal jelly and knock off the others. By this time this cell is sealed, there should be no further material for the bees to select a new queen from and any more that have been produced should be knocked off and then you can sit back and wait.

The new queen should emerge 9/10 days after the cell is sealed. Once emerged you need to leave her alone for approximately three weeks, perhaps more, to become mated without interference from yourself. After that time a quick look to see if there are any eggs or larvae. if not leave them another week. Polished cells are a good sign that the bees are expecting a queen to lay, but not a guarantee. Hold the faith and you should be OK. If after five weeks from emerging nothing is doing, then there is a possibility that a laying worker will come forward and you will start getting a sporadic smattering of small drones in worker cells. The cells being a bit muffin shaped.

Once you have three nucs, you can keep them that way or you can merge parts to meet your need.

Good luck.

Of course there is always more ways than one to skin a cat.

Please put in your location, hive type and colony count to help others understand where you are coming from and assist in their helping you.
 
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splitting without finding a queen


Yes simple,it's called a walk away split,if on double brood then equalize the brood,put one box on a new floor with crown board or travel screen and block entrance,then move three miles or more to your next apairy...in a couple of days the split without the queen will have emergency cells,break down after eight days and intoduce new queen to this part of the split. If in single box,then just transfer half to the new box and move as above.
 
Try reading "How to Keep Bees Without Finding the Queen" by Paul Mann.
ISDN 978-1-904846-30-7
 
Is there any way to split a hive without having to be able to find and mark the Queen first ?? have tried to find her but she's proving elusive even though i know she's laying. As i have only the one hive its provong an obstacle to me

Making an emergency queen from a split like this is not ideal if that's your plan.
 

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