Hi,
So i have just done a hive split, and got my second hive up and running.
Just wondering if anyone knows what the success rate is with splitting hives
when using queen cells to populate second hive?
Hi Beno, I let my splits make emergency queens. When doing that, the success rate seems to be on par with what I read in one of my bee books, which is about 1 in 7 queens that will fail to get successfully mated…
You can increase your chances by splitting the split once the queen cells have developed. I’m doing that this afternoon. Not only will I double my chance of getting a successfully mated queen, I’ll also reduce the possibility of the colony swarming with the first virgin queen to emerge. Of course you can eliminate that risk by allowing only one queen cell per split.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the info.
Perhaps i should have asked this question yesterday before i did the split.
Anyway will just monitor both hives and see how it goes. I left a few queen cells on the frame for the new hive.
Was the hive preparing to swarm? You’ll need to check the main hive every 5 or 6 days to make sure that they are not building new queen cells.
The splits I do are preemptive swarm prevention measures, in that I split the colony before it starts preparing to swarm. In doing so, the split makes emergency queens.
My theory used to be that a colony is less likely to swarm with emergency queens, as opposed to swarm queens, which are purpose built in swarm preparations. I’ve been proved wrong on a number of occasions, as recently as about 10 days ago when a colony issued 2 swarms on the same day with emergency virgin queens.
What I try to do is break the splits down to small enough colonies with queen cells, with the hope that they wont swarm with the first virgin to emerge. I like multiple queen cells because I like the idea of natural selection. Leaving one queen cell would be ideal if we knew it was going to be a good one, & not a runt or a dud.
Yes from what i had observed i think they were preparing to swarm.
I will do as advised and check on main hive.
The joys of learning.
Thanks for sharing