Starting to think about winter and splits already

[Yankee11]

Trying to plan things out.

We caught 16 swarms this spring and they have built up rapidly. I am starting to plane for spilts and am wondering about timing. I want to overwinter
about 15 or 20 splits to sell early next spring as overwintered nucs, or over winter in deeps and make nucs from these in early spring.

Our winters are generally mild here and I am pretty sure our queens lay into Nov. and start again in Feb.

I am thinking start the grafts in next week or so so they get mated first of July.

This will be first year of attempting this so I thought we might start a discussion.

[LazyBkpr]

That is pretty much the direction I am going Yankee. I intend to start queens this week. I have about a dozen hives I want to requeen, and I have several nuc's to fill for over wintering.   

[Papakeith]

I've got a friend who is going to introduce me to grafting this weekend if our schedules permit.    If I graft this weekend.  I should see queens ready for nucs by late July correct?  Is that too late for them to establish themselves for the winter?

[LazyBkpr]

  Is that too late for them to establish themselves for the winter?

   It depends on the flow and how the summer goes PapaK but they should be fine if your going to overwinter nucs?  If your hoping for hives, Mid July is about where I draw the line for my Area.

[Papakeith]

looking for nucs.  We generally have a very heavy fall flow.  Hopefully we have mild derth in August and a tolerable winter.  It is an experiment.  If nothing else I'll know what not to do next year.