Tupelo Beekeepers Association

Splitting Hives

by Donnie Chapman

Keep in mind most all beekeepers do things different. What works for one person is not necessarily the best thing for someone else. What is easiest for a commercial beekeeper is not the best thing to do if you’re a hobbyist and vise-versa. What works best for a hobbyist is not practical for a commercial beekeeper. Always pick what works best for you and suits your needs. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but do not put everything you’ve got into experiments until you know it will work.

            We split to…

                                    -     Increase our number of colonies

                                    -     Prepare for pollination

-         Swarm control (creating an artificial swarm so we do not loose bees)

-         Make Nuc’s to have spare queens on hand or to have spare bees to boost weak colonies

First of all, remember that bees are insects. They have little bee brains. They act on bee instincts. A bee’s instincts are basically two things, #1, care for and protect their brood, and #2, gather food. Both ensure survival of the colony. Insects can’t be trained to do exactly what we want them to do. It is best to observe the bees at work, then try to think like a bee. Compromise and develop a way allowing the bees to do what comes natural to them, but, on our terms.

Bees live in our hives because we make conditions right for them, like pests (roaches, ants, spiders, scorpion’s etc.) will live in our homes. We place removable frames in our hives, allowing us easy inspection of the colony. We place supers over the colony for our convenience. These things are not a true part of nature, but the bees meet us halfway and tolerate our intrusion.

North Florida Maple blooms usually occur in January. Spring Titi is almost a sure thing, blooming in late January, February, and March. Both of these plants are early nectar sources, allowing colonies to build strength for the spring nectar flows. When these plants bloom, it is an excellent time to split colonies. Weather is the main obstacle. Cold spells and frost can be harmful to the bees and blooms.

Bees can be fed pollen substitute and syrup, (corn or sugar), to encourage early brood rearing to prepare for splits. Queens may be purchased or the bees can be allowed to make their own queen. Don’t put a lot of worry into spending money on queens. The sale of two jars of honey will cover the cost of a queen. It is well a known fact, bees will make a queen from an egg if something should happen to their queen. Bees in a split colony will do the same thing when there is no queen present. If planning to allow the bees to make their own queen, select the colony you wish to split. Consider the traits you like in certain colonies such as, honey production, gentleness, housekeeping etc. Queens made by the bees in the split are usually superior to any queens you can buy. Also feed other colonies with desirable traits to encourage their brood rearing so drones will be available. Drones should be hatching from drone cells when the splits are being made to breed queens. You want the drones to be a couple of weeks old when the queens hatch.

My preferred method of splitting colonies is using a double screen board. A double screen board can be made by using a piece of plywood 16 ¼” x 20”, with a 6”x 6” hole cut in the center. Cover the hole on both sides with a metal screen. Metal screen is easy to clean with a blow dryer if it becomes clogged, and the bees can’t chew through it. Double screen boards can also be made from ¾” square boards or by ripping ¾” rings off of old supers with a table saw, and covering both sides with screen. Either kind needs a spacer put around it on one side, making the double screen board look like a thicker than normal inner-cover or bottom board without an entrance on one end. A 3/8” to ¾” space needs to be cut into one end of the double screen board for an entrance.

Select the colony you wish to split. Move two or three frames of brood into the center of a new box. The frames should contain eggs, larva and capped brood and be covered with nurse bees. Place a frame of honey and pollen on each side of the brood and fill the rest of the box with frames of comb or foundation. Place frames of comb or foundation in the empty spaces in the parent colony. The bees in the parent colony will rebuild their brood nest. Place the double screen board on top of the parent colony with the spacer up and the entrance to the rear. Place the split on top of the parent colony and put a hive cover on the split. A feeder placed above the split’s brood nest is not a bad idea.

 The bees above the double screen board will soon find they are queenless, and start to make a new queen. If you purchased a queen, introduce the queen cage in the split a few hours after splitting. If you plan to have the bees make a new queen, check in 3 to 4 days and make sure there is a queen cell present. If no queen cell is present, add another frame containing eggs to the center of the brood nest in the split. Handle the frames containing queen cells carefully. Do not shake or bump these frames. An indication of a superior queen will be eggs in the brood nest no longer than 15 days after she hatches.

The double screen keeps the bees on opposite from trying to feed each other and keeps the queens from fighting. Most important it allows the heat created by the parent colony to rise and help keep the split colony above nice and warm.

This method of splitting can also be used if you find queen cells in a colony while doing routine inspections. Just put the frame with the queen cell and nurse bees above the double screen board. Soon you will have another colony.

If the split should fail, lightly smoke the bees and remove the double screen board. The colony will be reunited and nothing but your time is lost. If the split was made by putting the brood in another box in the apiary, and the split failed, moths quickly move in and destroy the comb, with you wasting more time cleaning the mess up.

The weather and available food effect bee biology. A couple of things to consider if allowing the bees make their own queen are; will the new queen build a colony strong enough to produce a honey crop when the honey flow arrives? And, are their drones in the apiary to mate the new queen?

A queen takes 16 days to hatch from an egg. It is usually 7 days, (sometimes three weeks) until she has been mated and lays her first egg. 21 days later, a worker bee will emerge. The new worker spends a day or two as a cell cleaner. She then feeds and caps brood until she is 11 days old. From 11 days to 21 days old, she works as a house bee, grooming and feeding other bees, storing food, building comb, ventilating and performing guard duties. At about 21 days old, she will become a forger, working in the field collecting pollen and nectar. On a heavy honey flow, she might live to be 6 weeks old before she wears her body out and dies.

The life cycle needs to be mentioned because it is important to have a strong colony with a force of field bees when the main honey flow starts. A colony boiling over with nurse bees only, will not make a honey crop. If the bees make their own queen, it will be 65 to 79 days before she puts a worker in the field.

            16 days for the queen to hatch

             7 to 21 days to mate and start laying

            21 days for the egg to hatch

            21 days to become a field bee

            65 to 79 days

If you wish to have a colony ready to gather nectar on April 15 when Tupelo starts to bloom, the split needs to be made by February 10. Of course, the weather can change bloom dates by a week or more. If you purchased a queen, she will be putting bees in the field about 42 days after she is released from the queen cage. But, remember, the best queen will be made by your bees.