HOW TO SPLIT A BEEHIVE

Wondering how to split a beehive or how to make nucs for sale? Making splits is great fun and its good to hold some nucs in reserve to make up for winter losses.

We find it much easier to make splits and nucs for sale by using mated queens and poly nucs as opposed to risking the virgin queen failure and loss of the split. Detailed below is a step by step guide to making nucs

how to MAKE NUCS

HOW TO MAKE UP NUCS WITH MATED QUEENS

1. MAKE SPLIT

Day 0: Identify a strong colony to use as a donor hive. Remove 3-4 frames of brood and 2-3 frames of stores and place in nuc. Shake in plenty of nurse bees to make up a 6 frame nuc.

You need to ensure you have brood in all stages (eggs and larvae) and plenty of bees to cover the frames, but no queen! - SEE VIDEO.

2. MOVE TO NEW LOCATION

Day 0: It's possible to make up nucs or make splits in the same apiary - SEE VIDEO - but, it's far easier to manage the numbers of bees, without drifting, by moving to a new apiary.

Close the bees in the nuc and transfer them to the new apiary location. The new apiary should be at least miles away.

3. REMOVE CELLS

Day 8: Leave split alone for 8 days. If you moved apiary you can feed. If you stayed in the same apiary, do not feed (reduce robbing).

Day 8: After 8 days, go through every single frame and shake the bees off. Identify all emergency cells and remove them. Double check - you need to remove ALL the cells.

4. ADD CAGED QUEEN

Day 8: Immediately after destroying ALL the emergency cells, the colony is now hopelessly queenless. They have no queen and no resources (eggs or larvae) to create one.

Add a mated queen, in a sealed queen cage and place between two frames of brood. Do not remove the tab covering the fondant.

5. REMOVE FONDANT TAB

Day 10: Leave the sealed cage in between the brood frames for 48 hrs. This allows the bees to get used to the smell of their new queen.

After 48 hrs, you can remove the plastic tab to expose the fondant. Place the cage back between the frames of brood and the bees will slowly release the queen.

6. CHECK FOR EGGS

Day 17: After 1 week, we go back and check for eggs to see if the queen has been successfully introduced. If you see eggs, then there is no need to see the queen.

If you dont see eggs, try and locate the queen. It can take 2-3 weeks for mated queens to come back into lay following being caged.

HOW TO MAKE UP NUCS WITH MATED QUEENS

HOW TO SPLIT A BEEHIVE

1. MAKE SPLIT

2. MOVE TO NEW LOCATION

3. REMOVE CELLS

4. ADD CAGED QUEEN

5. REMOVE FONDANT TAB

6. CHECK FOR EGGS

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