Author Topic: Capped brood and splits  (Read 2111 times)

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Offline flint1

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Capped brood and splits
« on: April 16, 2018, 09:30:07 am »
hello everyone. My question of the day. i plan on splitting a hive or two this season.  How many frames of brood do you like to have in the parent hive before you take from it for a split? 

Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Capped brood and splits
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2018, 09:38:28 am »
My general rule is that I try to have as many as I want to take. Meaning if I am taking two frames of brood and bees that there are still two frames of brood and bees in the parent hive. However, with the laying queen in the parent hive it is not an absolute necessity. She will catch up again pretty fast.
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Offline apisbees

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Re: Capped brood and splits
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2018, 02:04:55 pm »
Set standards for your hives at a time of year, for me is is going into pollination of fruit trees at the same time dandelions start blooming. so 1st week in may in my area. the standard for a pollination unit going into an orchard is 5 frames of brood and 8 frames of bees. any over this amount take from the colony, colonies with less get given this extra brood. then extra brood and bees from the evening process can be made into nucs with an extra queen. It is still to early to raise your own queens as there are still not enough drones for mating yet.By the 3rd week in may the bees will be back from pollination and there will be drones fore mating so then nucs can be pulled. At this time I want the colonies to have 7 frames of brood with 10+ frames of bees. This unit will produce a crop of honey with limited chance of swarming as empty frames are added to the brood nest and supers are added on top fairly quickly. Any extra brood with bees is made into nucs.
but it is up to you in what you want from your bees? sell or raise lots of nucs at the expense of a honey crop, or use as a swarm tool to remove the excess bees and brood so the hive meets you management practices and swarm prevention.
There are beekeepers that produce nucs and drop their colonies back to a 4 frame nuc it's self. I will start a thread wit a link to a podcast from Oregon State University with John Gates
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Offline riverbee

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Re: Capped brood and splits
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2018, 07:23:29 pm »
"i plan on splitting a hive or two this season.  How many frames of brood do you like to have in the parent hive before you take from it for a split?" 

good posts by apis and lazybkpr........

my answer to this question; it depends, what is your goal? do you want honey or do you want to increase your hive numbers?
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Offline flint1

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Re: Capped brood and splits
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2018, 02:22:45 pm »
Thanks everyone.  My goal is to increase the hive numbers.  My goal is 20 hives to be self sufficient and to be able to sell nucs to offset some of the expense of the hobby. :laugh: