Splitting Hives
By ekpeach in General | 2 comments
A relatively new beekeeper called and asked me to help him split about 6 colonies and show him how to install the queens. I told him that I would be glad to help when the queens arrived from the queen supplier.
He called me last Tuesday and we made arrangements to meet at his Gulf Shores apiary the next day. He wanted to make 4 splits there and 2 more up north at his mother’s farm.
One of the hives he wanted to split had been used to boost up a nuc and he didn’t have enough brood or bees to split. One of the nucs didn’t have enough bees to warrant a queen so we didn’t queen that one at this time. We did make a split using a frame of brood from 2 different hives. So only one split from Gulf Shores.
We went up to the north end of the county to his mother’s farm and actually split both of those hives, and used another frame to place with the nuc from the first apiary. All in all, he used only 4 of the queens out of the 10 he bought. I bought the other 6 as I knew several beekeepers that would buy the queens.
The queens were marked and clipped from the supplier. We found two of his original queens. The first one was on a frame and he spied her before I did. We put the frame containing the queen on top of the open hive and I went to get my marking pin. When I got back, he said that he had looked away just a second and she got away from him. I hope she is in the hive box doing the colony some good. We didn’t find her after looking for about 10 minutes.
The next one I found, and he said that he would not take his eyes off her this time. I got the marker and was planning to clip her wings, but she was so feisty that I just marked her and put her back on the frame.
The young beekeeper said that with my help, he now thinks he can install queens by himself. The one thing I did show him was how to water the caged queens. Dip your finger in a container of water getting just a drop on the tip, slid your wet finger longways on the screen. That will put water in a line and the workers can suck it up and feed to the queen in their care. If you haven’t done this before, you should get your mentor to show you how. It is easier to understand when you see it.
Always keep your veil close, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp. Until the next time, have fun and read, read, read.
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Mike | Jun 28, 2011 | Reply
Dear ekpeach
I’ve been beekeeping for around 7 and a half years now and this year after selling some small hives to a guy who wanted to try beekeeping, he made 800 pounds of honey off of those 3 hives. Another beekeeper found out and asked if he could spilt my hives by grafting queens from my frames then using at least two of my frames for every nuc to start it off. Then he wants 50% of the nucs made. It doesn’t sound very fair to me because queen rearing stuff is fairly inexpensive. And he’s getting back all his nuc boxes.
Anyways, would just appreciate your thoughts!
Mike
ekpeach | Jun 29, 2011 | Reply
I think that if he want to graft from your queen, you can sell him one or two and let him graft from his own stock. Or he could help you split and take 1/4th to 1/3rd of the nucs as payment for his work. I think 1/2 is too much, but that is my thought. He is making your increase though, so how much is the increase worth to you?
Let me know how it fairs out.
Peaches