Got Hive last Feb 2019 have not harvested any honey but do have some in Flow frames.
Question is it is now late March weather as cooled down the hive seems to be filling up with bees just worried they might swarm can I still split now or leave it to early spring
Paul
Did you discover anything in your inspection that suggest the colony would want to swarm?
I performed a split in mid Feb and I felt that was pushing it. But queen was able to get mated successfully.
You’re in a more temperate climate to me, so maybe somebody around you can advise if mating season is still happening.
Once it gets cooler, the drones get discharged first, so mating success will drop.
I’m at Coolum Beach Paul so a similar climate and conditions. Your hive has gone thru the drought and survived. With the Autumn cooling down I wouldn’t be to concerned about swarming as it sounds as though the hive is not really that big as you haven’t had a harvest.
The only way to know for sure is by doing a full inspection of the hive, looking for a mass of bees up in the roof hanging about totally bored, look for queen cells being made, you will always find one or two ‘play cells’ half made and I leave them there. With the cooler weather the urge of swarming will reduce as will the number of drones.
I was down on the Gold Coast a month ago helping beginners out and some of the hives had very recently swarmed, but a lot can change in a month.
Without doing an inspection I would not do a split now so the colony is strong over winter and look at doing an early Spring split when it would definately be needed.
Cheers
Thanks Peter will now do a proper inspection and follower advise and take it from there
Paul