split colony

[beeblessed]

i have some questions about splitting a colony . whats the pros & cons of using 2 hive bodies for the split verses the original hive body & a nuc ? i have extra hive bodies .  also i was wondering if the weather was good and the hive has enough brood , honey and pollen would it be ok to do it at this time, late feb.  i live in middle georgia area and the weather is to get up in the low 70 s  for  a week or so. this spring i will have had 3 hives for a year, any input will be helpful ,thanks.   

[AllenF]

First, don't let the 70 degrees today fool you.  Remember we had a hard freeze on Easter the year before last and it will be a while before drones will be flying.   Wait until you have tons of bees and brood for the splits.   If you are running 2 deeps for hives, you can just split them.  Take the top box off and set it to the side.   Come back later and see which one has eggs.   Put new queen in the other.  1 hive now 2 with 10 frames of bees each. 

[organicfarmer]

my rule of thumb for split timing: i'll start about 2 weeks before the swarm season in my area. So for me that'd be splitting early May for a swarm season that usually starts around mid-May. That what feels safe to me but some may recommand even earlier. Check with other beekeepers around you when swarming season starts or when they split.
As for using 2 bodies vs a nuc box, if you take only 2-3 frames from original, i would not give the split too much room to manage; let them grow in an adequate space for a little while and then jump to hive body. If you split equal then you may place both half in a body. Here with 2 deeps, i split half, give each one deep, making sure there's what they need to raise a new queen or introduce a new one in the queenless half.

[beeblessed]

i thank you for your comments . one reason i was considering  a early split was because one colony i have was gathered from a swarm at my job site on april the first . how i remember it was  april 1 was i thought the guys at work was playing a april fools joke on me. the guys at work knew i had ordered 2 pkg of bees and had built my hives . i got a call from one of the guys telling me to come over to another area that there was bees over there. i almost did not go thinking i would go over there and there would probably be a wasp nest as big as my head. long story short with help from a beek i obtained my first colony. i was concerned if they would try to swarm again about that time ? also when is the swarming season normally for middle ga. area ?  thanks , beeblessed . 

[Michael Bush]

Maybe you can do splits earlier in the land of "hopelessly lost"... but that would be very early in Eastern or Western Nebraska.

[AllenF]

I like to have the swarm traps out 2nd week of March.  End of March for around here, depending on the weather and the bees.

[ArmucheeBee]

AllenF

We are about two weeks behind you -- in Rome.