hive split

[dannygolf1959]

I have two hives but at the moment only bees in one. The one that the bees are in is a standard bs brood box. The empty hive is a poly hive with 14x12 brood box. I am nowhere near ready to split yet but when the time comes,,what is the best way to do it,,,laymans terms please,,im a newby

 

[pargyle]

I have two hives but at the moment only bees in one. The one that the bees are in is a standard bs brood box. The empty hive is a poly hive with 14x12 brood box. I am nowhere near ready to split yet but when the time comes,,what is the best way to do it,,,laymans terms please,,im a newby

Wait until you find queen cells then do an A/S. It will happen sooner or later.

Or:

If you just want to start a new colony then you really need to dummy down the 14 x 12 with a divider to about 3 or 4 frames - fill the empty space with insulation of some sort (even a bin liner filled with straw or rags or anything you have handy will do). In this dummied down space place a frame from your existing hive which has fresh eggs on it and a frame of emerging brood aong with the bees that are on them - add a couple of frames of stores and leave them to get on with it. Obviously make sure that the queen is not on any of the frames or amongst the bees you have transferred ..

They will draw out a queen cell or two and when she emerges she will eventually get mated ... and you have another colony.

Check a few days after you have split to make sure you have a queen cell - it really doesn't matter if you get more than one .. and after that leave them be. Once the queen starts laying you can add space to the colony.

It's just the same as using a Nuc except the overall box is bigger ... just the inside space reduced down.

There's a few finesses you can do .. but that's the basics - if you want a bit more this is good ...

http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm

Meant to add ... don't worry about the fact that you are putting std national frames in a 14 x 12 - they will build brace comb on the bottom of them but it's not a problem - you can work them out over the next year or two.