Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Raising Queens => Topic started by: Blair Sampson on July 01, 2019, 08:45:55 am
-
I was recently successful notching a walk away split. My process was standard: 2 frames of capped brood with 2 of honey/pollen. Notch capped brood frames in several spots and await queen hatching. To my amazement it worked.
Here's my question: I wish to do more splits and try notching again. This time I was planning on notching a selected frame of capped brood and leaving it in the mother (queen right) hive for a week or so prior to making a split. This would provide the split with a jump start. My concerns are will having notched queen cells (as many as 6-8) promote swarming instincts in the mother hive. And/or will the existing queen in the mother hive kill off the cells prior to hatching? Would adding a queen excluder between brood boxes help?
-
You're notching capped brood? I thought using 3 day old larva, or younger, was the way to go. Ted
-
Notching day old larvae located between larger/older larvae and eggs.
-
The workers will only pull the notched cells if the colony is queenless. They will only repair the cells if you leave them in the mother hive.
-
Gottcha! Thanks for the clarification. Ted