New beek question

[Willi P]

Just registered. Question: Split a very strong hive Saturday 3/21, there were bees apparently bearding underneath the hive before the split.  After the split (queen moved to new hive body) the bees have a large cluster about 6" in diameter and 2" deep cone shape hanging from the screened bottom board. They are hanging down far enough that I can't close the ipm board up fully. This parent hive has 3 deeps and I gave it one med super with foundation. The 4-5 frames of brood/food w/queen that I took away did not put a dent in the population. Any ideas?

 Will

[iddee]

You can switch places with the hives. The foragers will return to the original location and join the split.

You can shake a few frames of bees in front of the split and they will join it.

If you are letting the hive raise a new queen, the population will decrease before the new queen produces new bees. 

If you are letting the hive raise a new queen, you will likely get several cells. You can make another split with a capped queen cell.

That's just a few choices. There are others.

PS. Welcome to the forum.

[kebee]

 Welcome to the forum Willi P, hope you find your stay here good.

Ken

[pistolpete]

Iddee is spot on.   It really depends on what you're after with your apiary and when you expect your major honey flows for the year.  Bees die off at a rate of about 1000/day this time of year, so by the time they are done with the three week brood interruption, that hive will be down about  1/3 their population.

[rwlaw]

Welcome to the forum
Can't add much to iddees suggestions, swapping the hives sounds the best to get the population of the parent hive down. Be prepared for the explosion tho.
That hive sounds like a whopper, from your description you could get another couple splits, if not more. It all depends on how many frames of q cells you end up with.

[Willi P]

Wally, thanks for the reply, and thanks for looking over those frames of drawn comb for me Saturday at
Nancy's split presentation. In the interim, i spoke with a knowledgable beekeeper/seller that suggested
that I may have a swarm attached to this parent hive. If so, he suggested that I pull the parent hive off,
Put it on a new bottom board and put the old bottom board  over a new hive body (with some drawn comb, etc.) to entice them into their new home.

Willi P

[Jen]

Iddee- "You can switch places with the hives. The foragers will return to the original location and join the split.

    This same scenario has come up on another post. Sounds logical. However hubs and I were talking about it, and we want to know why the foragers would go straight into that swaped hive with another queens pheromones? Wouldn't they know that they are in the wrong hive and come out and find their own scented hive?

[Perry]

Not really, they are honed into location when returning. Guard bees usually leave them alone as they are bringing groceries to the table (sort of like relatives you can't stand except when they show up with a nice bottle of something).

[Jen]

.....That's funny Perry    So if I have a healthy hive that is a deep, med, then super... how many foragers will leave that hive and return, in one day?

[CpnObvious]

I have nothing to add to this, but wanted to welcome you, Willi!

[iddee]

Even if it is a swarm, 6 in. dia. and 2 in. deep doesn't sound like much of one. You could shake them into a nuc or hive and see if she starts laying in 3 or 4 days. Otherwise, they are queenless. If that be the case, shake them out in front of the split and let them go into it.

[Slowmodem]

Welcome and enjoy your stay! 

[riverbee]

hi will, and welcome to the forum, just thowing this out:

"Question: Split a very strong hive Saturday 3/21, there were bees apparently bearding underneath the hive before the split. "

another queen maybe?

"After the split (queen moved to new hive body) the bees have a large cluster about 6" in diameter and 2" deep cone shape hanging from the screened bottom board. They are hanging down far enough that I can't close the ipm board up fully. This parent hive has 3 deeps and I gave it one med super with foundation. The 4-5 frames of brood/food w/queen that I took away did not put a dent in the population. Any ideas?"

again, another queen?

just my initial thoughts on this, may be totally out in left field, which i have been known to do.........

keep us posted!