Making increase

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

deemann1

Field Bee
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
663
Reaction score
215
Location
Ireland
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
20+ nucs
I have 4 colonies now and want to increase to a few more where possible.
My hives are on single brood
One hive is bursting with bees at the moment so I'm thinking on splitting.
Should I split into 2 or 3
Currently on 9 frames brood .
Should I wait until they want to swarm and make a couple of nucs or split into 2 and let one raise its own queen
 
One hive is bursting with bees at the moment so I'm thinking on splitting.
Should I split into 2 or 3
Currently on 9 frames brood .

Split them into nine and introduce a mated queen to each one, best done in a poly nuc box.
 
I'm in a similar situation as yourself and want to make an increase from my hives.

I ordered some mated queens today and I read up on Cushman and he advocated a 2 frame nuc for making splits, which is what I was planning to do in a six frame 14x12 poly nuc. Tempted to order some of the BS honey bees nucs which can be split down the middle to create two three frame nucs. Will then maybe split those nucs again to get further increases and let the production colonies recover.

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/twoframenuc.html
 
Last edited:
A 2 frame nuc is fine if you are going to add a sealed queen cell, or introduce a queen.
But not strong enough to raise its own queen from egg/larva. You may well get a poorly nourished queen who will be sub-standard
 

Latest posts

Back
Top