Updated on Hot hive!

[Queen Bee]

Several of you have asked about my Hot Hive-- so I thought I would do an update on it..

It's still Hot!  But I did order  3 new queens (marked) from a Apiary in GA today.. They will be here on July the 8th and I am planning on doing the robbing of honey and a split with this hive then.

This hive has 4 med. supers and 2 deep supers (full fo honey) and the two hive bodies for bood chamber and winter store!

Question: how would you all go about doing a split on it? Thanks
Debbie

[Markinaust]

Hi Debbie,

I wouldn’t be planning on robbing anything from your hive whilst requeening this could lead to disaster. As strange as it may seem the bees might think that the loss of honey is the fault of the new queen and kill her. Splitting on the other hand would be alright.

When you split have at least one frame of seal and one frame of unsealed brood in each. Try and make sure you also have as much pollen in each hive as possible.
You could possibly leave a little less honey in the hive you intend to leave on the original stand as most of the field bees will fly back to the original hive stand.
 The key to splitting is not to make your hies to weak as they may struggle to survive the winter. Another thing to remember is it takes one frame of honey to raise one frame of brood.


Cheers and good luck


Mark

[Queen Bee]

Hi Mark and thanks for the reply! Do you suggest that I wait to rob the hive OR go ahead and do it ahead of time.  The only problem I have with doing it ahead of time is that I will not know how much honey to leave with the bees for winter stores...