The Honey Factory

[OhZark Biddies]

I think the distance ( I always heard 2 miles) is more important when moving a hive...

when splitting you’re really counting on the younger nurse bees to stay put... but expect the older foraging bees to end up back in the original hive...

If you feed the split, and/or make sure they have some nectar and/or capped honey frames then it’s probably not a big issue...

some folks take the old hive and the new split and face the entrances at each other in the original location ...

then returning foragers end up going into both... at least in theory...

you can always shake some more nurse bees from the original hive into the split in a few days if it looks like you didn’t get enough and all the foragers went back to the original hive, etc

 

[karenerwin]

I am writing the date, 16 days out, on the calendar now! That way I have a target date. I will probably take a look in a few days to see if the new hive is using the sugar water or not and to verify that all the bees didn't go back to the original hive.

 

[karenerwin]

Some folks take the old hive and the new split and face the entrances at each other in the original location ...

then returning foragers end up going into both... at least in theory...

My mentor said the same thing basically. She said that the bees will end up going into both hives.
I am guessing that is at least until the new hive has a new queen. After that the high won't have the right smell (pheromones) because the new queen will smell different. At least that is what I think.

 

[duluthralphie]

I am writing the date, 16 days out, on the calendar now! That way I have a target date. I will probably take a look in a few days to see if the new hive is using the sugar water or not and to verify that all the bees didn't go back to the original hive.

That’s patience!

I would be looking in a few days to see if they made a queen cell.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

I am writing the date, 16 days out, on the calendar now! That way I have a target date. I will probably take a look in a few days to see if the new hive is using the sugar water or not and to verify that all the bees didn't go back to the original hive.

do you have a backup plan? just in case the split doesn’t raise a queen... or she doesn’t return from her mating flight, etc?

... you can buy a new mated queen, or add a new frame with eggs and basically start over, or combine the split back to the hive, etc...

I bet they’ll be fine... but just some things to think about while you’re sitting around waiting for the little princess to be crowned...

gives you some time to shop for a mated queen, etc... although your mentor might know people

 

[karenerwin]

do you have a backup plan? just in case the split doesn’t raise a queen... or she doesn’t return from her mating flight, etc?

... you can buy a new mated queen, or add a new frame with eggs and basically start over, or combine the split back to the hive, etc...

I bet they’ll be fine... but just some things to think about while you’re sitting around waiting for the little princess to be crowned...

gives you some time to shop for a mated queen, etc... although your mentor might know people

I would probably try another frame of brood/eggs and hope for the best and if that didn't work then maybe combine them back into one hive.
But I have faith in them! I'm sure they will make a Queen or 2.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

I would probably try another frame of brood/eggs and hope for the best and if that didn't work then maybe combine them back into one hive.
But I have faith in them! I'm sure they will make a Queen or 2.

I think you’re right... most times it seems like the bees do their thing and it all works like clockwork...

I have a friend that has had some bad luck ... a split hive killed a purchased replacement queen one time... and another time he was trying to mark the newly raised queen on a split and smashed her ... so he called a little panicked both times ... then one year he had an extra queen for some reason... I forget how that happened... but we found someone that could use her

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I split my bee hive today!
I was amazed at what a difference a week or 2 made!!
The only thing I am not sure about is if I got any frames with eggs/larvae at the right age. I can’t see the tiny eggs with my glasses on and I need my glasses on to see everything else!
So I’m posting a bunch of pictures. You guys can help me look!!
View attachment 2198524
I did not put this frame in the new hive but I can go back and add it if I need too.
View attachment 2198526View attachment 2198527View attachment 2198530View attachment 2198531View attachment 2198533View attachment 2198538View attachment 2198540View attachment 2198542
This is the frame that I think is almost all honey. Am I right? Are the white cappings in the top left corner where they are capping honey?View attachment 2198544View attachment 2198546The picture above and below are the other side of the frame in the 2 previous pictures. View attachment 2198547View attachment 2198548View attachment 2198549
These last 2 pictures are looking down into the top brood box of the original hive. All the frames I took out (4 of them) came from this upper hive body. They only had 2 frames that didn’t have much going on. Although that first picture may have eggs that I just can’t see. 1 frame was almost all honey and it looked like they were starting to cap some of it (but I could be wrong about that part).

Just Seeing that massive amount of bees in those pictures give me a tiny adrenalin rush.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

Inspired by Karen, I did a quick check of the three hives up here at the house... hive 1 was the original hive, hive 2 is a split from that, and hive 3 was the swarm I caught from hive 1...

Last time I checked hive 1&2 had new queens that were just beginning to lay, hive 1 acted nasty though... and hive 3, which was the caught swarm hive, was queenless

this time around hive 1 was very well tempered... I had the thought that if they were still difficult to work, that I’d buy a mated queen and requeen it... and buy one for hive 3 also...

But I suspected that once the new queen was settled in they might act better, so I was waiting to see...

but now that hive 1 looked good and was well beehaved, I have waited too long on hive 3, so since it was queenless that long it now has laying workers ...

so i added a bit of open brood from hive 1, and I’ll likely just try to fix it by adding open brood over the next week or so... and see if they’ll turn off their egg makers and raise a pretty princess bee... and if that doesn’t work out I’ll give up and just shake it out...

hive 2 was a bit pissy and a bit behind hive 1, which was to be expected since it was a split with less resources ... but it looked right on track

 

[OhZark Biddies]

Not on par with R2Elk’s pics...

but I just took this phone pic of some of the lady workers at the copper bird bath ...

I inherited a weird/ugly copper plated bowl thing that works great as a bird bath/ bee cantina...

the rocks were imported from Michigan’s UP... because my wife apparently thinks the Ozarks didn’t have enough rocks