spilt

[westiev8]

What's the latest time of the year to do a hive split.... thanks

 

[Somerford]

do you intend for one of the splits to raise their own queen ? or are you buying one in and introducing it ?

different answer depending on the choice !

 

[westiev8]

Raise their own queen....

 

[B+.]

Raise their own queen....

In my area of the country, I wouldn't leave it too much longer. It can take a month to raise and (hopefully) mate a queen. Then she has to lay eggs and raise enough workers to defend the colony against robbers and keep the colony going over winter.
Colonies with a mated queen can gain a month on those that don't. Thats a big advantage.

 

[Poly Hive]

Roughly 16 weeks of active time left.

PH

 

[Plenty of honey]

If you have mated queens you can make up nucs even in to October, you need to give them feed and extra stores, but its entirely possible. If your relying on cells mating, then mid august is really your latest, but thats us her in northern France, very similar to south coast of the uk. Drones get mostly binned here first and second week of September.

Its all about having good colonies to split, being right with your timings and covering yourself if the weather goes bad early. A lot is possible but you need to be well organised and realistic in what you split.
Ive made some goofs, but you learn! this year i am actually starting my splits in about 3 weeks and giving cells. Saving our mated queens (from mating nucs) for requeening hives in my main apiaries where necessary.
Any nucs not queen right will then get the last round of mated queens from the mating nucs as we close those down and bulk up on stores for the winter. Any further down the line will just be combined.
Is it really nearly that time already lol where is this year going!!

 

[oliver90owner]

Plenty of time. Just think of the ways to get them strong and/or how you intend over-wintering them.

Depending on the wasp situation later, as mentioned earlier - they need to be strong enough to repel them.

Better sooner than later, of course. Generating good queen cells should be your priority - demaree? Scrub queens from weak split emergency cells is a good way to run into supercedure problems late in the season.

Do not wait for the latest time suggested. Do it now. Barnsley is not exactly like the south coast.