The art & science of splitting hives: get ready to get more bees this year

摘要

Generally, if you have bees, you can make more bees; however, there are many variables. Your beekeeping expertise, the number and strength of your hive(s) that you plan to split, the numbers of splits you want to make, the season of the year, and the equipment you have available. All are factors that are important when making splits. Don't waste your time splitting anything but strong colonies. So, what is a strong colony? Generally, a strong colony is one full, heavy deep in early Spring and two full, heavy deeps in Summer and Fall. Three full deeps is a gift. Unless you are advanced in beekeeping procedures, plan to buy queens for your splits. Producing your own queens is another topic for another article. It's common knowledge that a colony canproduce a queen from eggs or very young larvae, but it will take weeks for a new queen to begin to produce young bees. During those ensuing weeks, the colony's strength will decline noticeably. If you are serious about the split's future, buy a queen for it. If you are playing at beekeeping for biological enjoyment, letting a colony produce it's own queen is okay but your failure rate will be higher.