Looking good. Thanks for the pointers. It looked like you had the entrance to the colony to be relocated closed off for transport ! Do you remove that right away at new location or do you keep bees prisoners for day or 2 at new location and then remove it ? Or maybe you adapt a queen excluder to the entrance at the new location to make sure queen stays in New hive location and doesnt leave.... ?
If you had a mated queen available would you requeen the remaining hive when you split or allow them to try to raise one and then introduce a new queen or just leave them. Doesn’t it leave them without brood for a few weeks if they make their own?
For this kind of split to control swarming I don't give them a mated queen. I work with what they already want to do. Since they already had a few swarm cells and one of them capped, it won't be long before a virgin queen hatches. It does cause a short break in brood production but by splitting them I control how many bees I leave in the hive. They will ultimately be much stronger than if I allowed them to swarm. The positive side in a break in brood production is that it also causes the mite population to crash naturally.
Looking good. Thanks for the pointers.
It looked like you had the entrance to the colony to be relocated closed off for transport ! Do you remove that right away at new location or do you keep bees prisoners for day or 2 at new location and then remove it ?
Or maybe you adapt a queen excluder to the entrance at the new location to make sure queen stays in New hive location and doesnt leave.... ?
I open the entrance as soon as I get to the new location. They re-orientate quickly when they fly out and don't recognize their surroundings.
If you had a mated queen available would you requeen the remaining hive when you split or allow them to try to raise one and then introduce a new queen or just leave them. Doesn’t it leave them without brood for a few weeks if they make their own?
For this kind of split to control swarming I don't give them a mated queen. I work with what they already want to do. Since they already had a few swarm cells and one of them capped, it won't be long before a virgin queen hatches. It does cause a short break in brood production but by splitting them I control how many bees I leave in the hive. They will ultimately be much stronger than if I allowed them to swarm. The positive side in a break in brood production is that it also causes the mite population to crash naturally.