Help required making a split please...

[acepestdetective]

Hello all.

I'm gonna make a split of a colony who have been very busy here in the UK so far this spring.

They're spread out over two brood boxes and a super (work and weather has meant I've been late sorting them) and I have an un marked queen.

As for normal splits I believe I would find the queen and move her and a good divide of the frames to a new hive so the nurse bees go with her and the flying bees return home thus thinking the hive has swarmed.

However, due to the sheer numbers and the fact they are quite a nasty strain of bees I'm not sure whether my queen spotting skills are going to be any good and thus want to know if there's anything else I can do?

I won't be buying in a new queen or anything because she is a great layer and the workers are going at it hell for leather.

My only other thought was to move the hive to it's new site so the nurse bees stay there with the queen and the flying bees go back to the old hive where they would find queen cells/young eggs ready to develop into a new mother. Or, would the flying bees simply stay with the queen?

Any advice would be greatly welcomed please.

Regards,

Rob.

[cam]

Why not just deal the frames into separate supers? One for you one for you. No need to find the queen, the queenless side will raise one.

[acepestdetective]

So the flying bees would return to the original site and the queened hive carry on as normal then?

Just a bit concerned that if the queen stayed on the existing site that the bees wouldn't think they've swarmed and thus still go ahead anyway?

[Bee Happy]

If I understand what I've seen (and did), the reduction in force will keep the original queen in place.

[jdesq]

I would move 1 brood box and the super over to start a new hive and add a super to the remaining brood box. Instant split.

[acepestdetective]

Hey guys.

Thanks for all the advice. I split the hive a couple of days back. Jeez, there were some bees there. I left a nice larvae in the one hive in the hope the bees may seal this cell and get their new queen growing.

Failing that, there are always some new eggs to develop.

Cheers, Rob.