Making splits of bee hives

Jens the Beekeeper
Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin
edited November 2020 in Beekeeping

Hello everyone,


I wanted to share what I do when creating splits. I made three of these last wednesday.

My hives are exploding with bees and brood right now. In order to prevent swarming while maintaining honey production I take out one frame with mostly capped brood und some cells with very young brood. The bees will raise the young brood as queens.


I put the brood frame with approx 2000 bees into a hive box directly adjectant to the hive box wall. The next frame is a foundation and as the last frame I add a frame with honey of approx. 2kg. Dann I reduce the entrance to und width of one bee and take the split to a Location at least 3km away. After 28 days I come back and will treat the new hive with the now laying queen with spraying oxalic acid.

This small hive will grow into a full grown und strong hive vor winter.

How do you do splits und grow your apiary?

Comments

  • EarlKelly
    EarlKelly Posts: 230 ✭✭✭

    Just got back into bees this year. Haven’t tried to split one yet just getting going. Might give it a try this spring. How do you make out overwintering your bees? Or are you far enough south so not a major concern? Building swarm boxes right now. Want to be ready this spring. Did manage to get 3 wild swarms this year. Anxious to see how I do this year. Thanks for the info.