Get Over Nervousness About Your First Split

[Music] hello bearded bee people welcome back to bnk bees it's early april the sun is shining the bees are flying and that makes me super happy ah every year at the end of the beat year i'm ready for winter i'm ready to go inside and to rest and not think about bees for a while and then come january late january early february i am ready to get out there with the bees and this winter we spent in the upper peninsula completely away from my bees and uh that had me really really itching really really wanting to get out with my bees when i had the opportunity and so now that we've got them all moved i'm just i'm just geeked ah i'm happy all right so but today i am going to talk about getting over split nerves um i remember having nerves before i made my first split having nerves having a nervous reaction being apprehensive about making my first split even though i knew it was something that i needed to do and i knew it was something that was advantageous to learn and i knew that i was excited for the possibilities of being able to take one colony and make more it was a nerve-wracking experience because it was something that i'd never done before there were a lot of things that i thought could go wrong and uh to be honest most of that apprehension most of that nervousness was rooted in just me not understanding the process as well as i should have so that is the goal of this video today i'm going to try to get rid of your split nerves if you're getting ready to make your first splits i think it should be pretty easy to get rid of those split nerves we use a dose of science to to do the actual work for us but let's get right into it when you're making a split what you're essentially trying to do is take one colony and make it into two now you can do this by getting a queen from a local queen breeder or buying a queen cell or any other number of things but i'm going to talk mostly about making a walk away split you can adapt these things for making a split with a queen cell or making a split with a mated queen and i have videos on those subjects that you can just search for here on bnkbs on youtube um but in terms of making a walk away split our main goal the main thing that we need these bees to do is to create a queen now that major thing that needs to happen is the roots of where things can go wrong so let's first talk a little bit of science about why bees bake queens there are three main instincts as to why bees would make queens and those are the emergency super seizure and swarm responses in the emergency response that means something happens this is an emergency case something happened to our queen we have to create one now the super seizure response is a slower less emergency thing and that is when the queen gets a little bit older and her mandibular pheromone starts to wane it starts to dissipate and the bees decide after it gets below a certain threshold that they need a new queen and they will start to rear super seizure cells to make that happen the swarm response is pretty easy to understand that's the natural propagation method of these bees and that happens during the swarm time of year when the nectar is flowing and there are tons of bees they will create some swarm cells and send out the old queen and a bunch of bees leaving those swarm cells to repopulate the old colony with a mated queen or with a virgin queen that will then get made so when we are making walk away splits we are utilizing the emergency response so when you take a queen and some bees from a colony and move it to a new spot first of all it doesn't have to be very far away it can be right next door when you do that you're removing that queen and her pheromones from that parent hive when that parent hive realizes that she's gone and they will realize that because of the dissipating pheromones they will immediately start to make queen cells so if you make sure that you leave both aspects of your split with eggs and young larvae the half that doesn't have that queen is going to immediately start creating cells within 24 hours so the idea that when we start this split stuff that we have to talk these bees into making a queen or hope that they're in the mood to do it no that is their instinct when you're when you remove their queen they are going to start the process of creating a new one so what could go wrong in terms of making a split like what are the things that we really need to avoid and when i racked my brain in trying to figure these out i came up with a couple of different things and that is a starved split chilled brood or a failed mating flight how do we prevent those things pretty easy as far as the starved split is concerned obviously both halves have to have food especially the half that you're moving to the new location because the fact that the foragers are going to return to the old location so that new location split is going to be without foragers that are going to go out and get food and they are definitely in need of food in their hives if you are not giving them open nectar frames you have to feed them you have to actively feed them on the inside of the hive to make sure that they have enough food to keep everything warm and keep all the bees nice and healthy so that they can continue to create a brood nest for you as far as chilled brewed that is a concerning thing especially in early spring splits but the big thing that i do and that i recommend you do in order to avoid this is check your splits for population shifts four hours after and 24 hours after as i said when you move bees to a new spot there's going to be a shift in population as those foragers get up and come back to the old spa so four hours later you're gonna come out and you're gonna see whether there was a major population shift right away if there wasn't you close them back up wait 20 more hours for a full day check again if the population has shifted to where it's concerning in the new location grab a couple of those brood frames from the old location and shake all the beans off of them onto that split if you do those things and make sure 24 hours later that that both of those halves have enough bees to take care of an ample brood nest then the threat of a chilled brood situation is gone so check four hours and 24 hours after making your split and you will effectively avoid a chilled brood issue the last thing to be concerned about in terms of making a split is a failed mating flight now short of miniaturizing yourself and flying around with your virgin queen there's not a whole lot we can do about this the thing that i do recommend is to avoid getting into a laying worker situation if she doesn't come back the queen is going to emerge about 12 days after you make your split that is like clockwork because those bees in that emergency situation are going to start creating cells with one day old larvae almost every single time if they have the choice of different types of larvae so 12 days after you make your split you are going to have a virgin queen walking around within about a week or two of her emerging she's going to go out on her mating flight or mating flights if after three or four weeks you do not see fresh eggs in your split the first thing that i recommend you do is to get a frame of open brood from another hive grab a frame of open brood you can shake all the bees off if you want to give them to that split that is going to give them some brood pheromone which will inhibit those worker bees from laying eggs and it will also give them the ability to start creating a queen cell now i don't recommend you let them create another queen just because of the fact that the population is going to be a little bit lower and it's going to be even lower by the time that that second round is going to be a mated queen so definitely give them a frame of brood which like i said will inhibit the laying worker thing it'll also tell you whether they do or do not have a queen based on whether or not they start to create queen cells and then get on the phone with a local queen breeder and get yourself a cell or get yourself a queen so yeah the three things that could possibly go wrong chilled brewed check the population level four and 24 hours after making the split starved split just make sure both halves have food feed both halves if you're in any way questioning whether they have enough failed mating flight three to four weeks after she emerges if she's not laying get yourself a queen from a local queen breeder it's pretty much that simple the vast majority of splits are going to be successful and i think the vast majority of this apprehension is just rooted in our own insecurities so get out there be confident in yourself be confident in what you learned from this video if you have any questions or concerns leave them in the comment section below in this video or any other one and i would be happy to chat with you and allay those concerns for you so i hope you enjoyed this video i enjoy making this kind of stuff i love sitting out here in this bee yard get out there and have some fun with your bees see ya

Channel: B&K Bees

Views: 23,918

Keywords: beekeeping, beehive split, splitting bees, beekeeping lesson, beekeeping tutorial, bkbees, b&k bees, brett kozma

Id: jmCh1sF2kDg

Length: 9min 24sec (564 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 17 2021