How to Split a Hive | Step-by-step tutorial from a Beekeeper [Beekeeping 201] - SPRING 2022

[Music] do [Applause] [Music] we're at old temperature-wise 50s by now 22nd of march you saw these hives last wednesday before last when we did our pre-inspection um you know drones are going to be hatching now they were all under capped then uh it's it's time uh we're going to make a split i'm going to show you how i make a split i'm going to kind of talk to you a little bit about my method during and after we do this naturally we're going to film it you're going to see it all take place i have got a deep hive body i've set it beside the hive this is going to be the donor we're going to split from i have a moving robbing screen installed on the front of this box i have it all shut down the bees that i put in this box have only one one option stay or fly out if they fly out that's fine they're going to return back here i have frames of drawn comb that i've stored over winter under paramouth i have took taking these out i've let them air out there's no odor on them now they'll be perfectly fine why i have these in the box is not because the bees i'm moving need extra comb these bees will actually be producing their comb with the feed that i'll put on them after i get them situated and where they're going these frames are here to go back in place of the frames and bees that i take from the donor and place into the hive body i have an inner cover ready what i hope to do is catch the queen in a clip this is a queen clip um i'll i'll catch her in this i'll know where that queen is at while i'm picking and choosing which frames i want to send i'll lay her probably over here she'll be perfectly fine she's in the sunshine like i said our temps just on a steady increase right now my outer cover is close by it's important that you have these items that you're using at arm's length these bees should be relatively calm this morning we do have a south westerly east western east to west wind the wind chill's not a big deal when we find the queen the goal is i hope to catch her the frame i catch her from is suspect to have the freshest eggs that's not to say there's not going to be fresh eggs on other frames but in my mind when i find her that's that's the frame that suspect to have her freshest eggs we're going to catch her remove her from that frame i want that frame to stay if if you're not real comfortable with well i don't remember which frame it was and there's an importance to this i'm not comfortable with remembering which frame that was nine days from now have a sharpie ready in your pocket put an x on top of that frame representing showing you that you have left it you've determined that's the one you want the cells on put it back in do your pick and choose remember the queen's over here so so now you're not worrying about crushing killing or injuring her you do your pick and choose you're going to see all this you do your pick and choose you replace frames that you've taken out and you push all this together put your empty comb to the outside of the inhabited brood bees honey pollen that you're leaving um i mentioned nine days in nine days you will return to this hive if it takes them 24 hours to respond to being queenless within five days they have made their decision on on an egg and they have started its preparation to be a queen at nine days that queen cell should be completely drawn and have a cap on it with a viable queen growing inside from 9 to 15 16 days that queen will emerge at this point you have left this queen cell the only thing you would have done at day nine besides determining you've got that sale is remove all of the other cells save two you're going to leave a a buffer sale in case one were to be a dud um you know the age old thought is that first emergent queen will kill the secondary queen sometimes in the cell or if they hatch kinda at the same time there may be a battle one will win these are virgin queens at this point they have to fly they mate they return once they've made it they're mated for life that will be 15 to 20 drones we've waited this long to do this and we could run across the swarm cell already these bees have been condensed so if we do i'll show you what we're going to do and we'll deal with that then um i brought a frame perch with me today this is my second set of hands when i open this up i'm going to remove a frame and give me room to work in this hive without having everything setting out stacked out uh in the wind so it's it's important that you have these things available and ready for you so let's go ahead what what i what i want to do is when we left this particular queen she was in this bottom box and she's under this queen excluder there's things up here that i may want to know about and check on and and we will but our goal today is to make this split at the end of this split i'm going to talk to you a little bit about what i did if i feel like i forgot to inform you of something um secondly now what do we do with our split so let's just get right into this and split these bees [Music] okay in our absence the drone brood we talked about it hatching some of it hatching we talked about what was going to happen this is this is a drone that was produced came out of cappings this is a drone new drone came out of the cappings these bees if you'll notice here's the drone in half half a body honey bees do not want these corpses inside the hive they're going to rot the bees know it they're going to stink these are new new drones okay that that have not gotten a chance to fly but they get them out they take care of this and there won't be that many of them that that perished up here in the box okay so we've created us some room we've got them exposed lots of bees as we already knew was going to be we're going to install our second set of hands give them a little more a little more warning here that we really need them to do what we want them to do we're going to get a frame up out of here to work with this is going to provide our space okay of course you want to check it looks like this is honey some fresh nectar being put back but for the most part it's uncapped honey resources that they're utilizing so i'm i'm for sure in my mind there's no queen on that frame i'm gonna put it here on the perch up against the wall the box wins this way so so they're good we're gonna make room now and we're going to hunt for mama i'm going to move this frame to here in this frame to here we'll go ahead and pull that one and check it we're into the brood immediately lots and lots of capped okay i see capped on the one that i slid over we'll just go ahead and get back up and look at it none of this is a none of this is a time concern don't rush make it easy on yourself be sitting brood this frame as you all already picked it out i'm sure there's cups that have started mass of drone brood laid up down here on the bottom uh these are the cells these are the kind of frames you don't really want to see that's a secondary patch of brood they've built off you can see the cavet cavity down in behind it that queen can be down in behind that um we're going to go ahead and move this over and go forward if i cannot find her this will be a good suspect frame to come back and look and at that point we'll blow in under that comb and run those bees out from under there they've had a lot of bees hatch since we were here last and i'm waiting for my uh awesome videographer to pick her off here for me i'm looking we've already got bees inspecting this other colony you'll notice now you'll notice now the influx of drones went from couldn't hardly find a drone and lots of drones under cap to now that challenge yep you're absolutely right now the challenge of drones everywhere is that mcqueen is that mcqueen nope another drone that's all good jason's picked her off he's got her located we're going to go ahead and clip her when i say that we're not clipping her like that sounds we're going to catch her kind of got myself shaded here all right mama's in the clip gather up the other bees wither not a problem in fact that's a good a good buffer for her we don't want to injure her she's right there at the end of my thumb okay we're gonna set her here in the sunshine we're gonna look at this frame she come off of what did we decide we were gonna do this frame happened to say cbs on top of it i i hope i can remember that we're going to leave this frame it's it's my suspect and i can see them down in the sail i've got eggs this this will be my frame that i'm going to come back to in nine days it stays and i'm gonna leave it exactly where it was and now i'm gonna i'm going to pick and choose what i want this frame of bees is loaded with honey and bees there this is probably actually in-house work bees this is mostly just a food source i would love to send one of them with these bees also and when i say these bees it's my split bees but it really isn't a must due to the fact that i'm going to feed them i'm going to put a feeder on them they're going to be they're going to be well taken care of so here's a frame of pollen they've got it over here against the wall capped uncapped honey and pollen so let's move back to where we found the first brood that would be this frame is an awesome loaded frame of bees brood so we're sending that one with the queen i'm going to give her a replacement comb in that location i know what you're thinking because i just thought it myself i'm going to put this brood all back together everything we're leaving is going to be bunched the empty stuff on the sides all right frame of capped brood and bees back up to this one brood hatching brood and a lot of drones jason here's while we got this here and the sun's just really making them pop you see the eggs in the bottoms of the drum cells that little grain of rice laying right let me get out your way that little grain of rice laying right there in the bottom that bead is crawled over that's about a two day old egg it has laid down when she drops them they're standing straight up that's it okay so this has got drones i don't necessarily need to move any drones but it's got a lot of good brood with it i'm going to see if i can take one more good frame of capped brood right here oh yeah this will be a great one to send lots of bees a lot of of of bees that have been they're in here becoming good field bees see how quickly they move to the the comb that i had in the box you already i know what you're thinking you're already saying it well you just took bees back out of the box that's okay cbs we're leaving cbs nice frame of nice frame of brood pollen that one goes i want it to be over here okay that's getting getting to be pretty strong on what we're taking i'd like to take a minimum of four let's see what this one has on it okay you don't completely want to annihilate these bees of brood or resources there's no capped brood here but there is pollen and resource remember we've got a frame hanging there with a frame almost full of honey pollen and resources so we've got four strong frames of bees and brood we've got bees and brewed left we've got our frame determined where the cells are most likely to be drawn this is emerging and oncoming we're going to i think quit right here at a four frame so we're going to do a four frame split we're going to give them comb we're going to condense these resources this was a frame that we left don't forget brood stays together these are frames that i'm giving them this is a frame that they already had with honey they get it back when you're running nine frames did you feel that [Laughter] oh you got stuck again no i didn't never just grab that that stinger it's got that sack on top of it and it's it that's where the problem lies it's got that poison sack still just getting it okay um we've given we've taken now comb they get the comb back we owe them some comb we're going to give her back some bees usually a sharp wrap will take care of the majority of them okay all right we have taken all the resource we're going to take from that that deep body we know where our sails are going to be what we saw was cups that's fine if they've got one started that then they're just ahead of me so absolutely not a problem i'm going to put this back into play sometimes by the way sometimes a virgin queen will return to this box and come in and shoot straight upstairs it happens so just be be aware of that what you're going to see now is i still want some more resources i want to populate this box with some more bees so we're gonna go ahead and put this back on top we're gonna take the shallow off that y'all saw me add the other day it's actually got a little weight to it we're going to go back to here jason if you'll come around here we're going to raise this box like we did before our thoughts are she hasn't been up here since we did that inspection right so let's see if they turned anything in in their haste into a swarm cell and i'm gonna say they did not unless it's up high here's a cup nothing in it okay so it looks like from under here i can pull these outside frames maybe maybe that fourth in and i'll show you why i'm gonna pull them i need bees at this very particular point in time i need some more bees fourth frame i think i said i would say judging by the number of bees that's on it they're still hatching brood up here yep okay here here's here's our boys black drones and you'll see them range gold black none none the difference they're still drones a lot of these bees as you can tell have hatched gone through the queen excluder working just like we want it to work i want some of these bees to go jason are you ready that frame will reload right there these bees will settle in there's a percentage that are going to fly right back up into this this box but they're going to they'll equalize nice frame of honey [Music] okay we got we got bees and i'm i'm quite certain we've got plenty of them especially with the amount of brood that we put in there we've got the important thing is every frame that i moved that had brood had enough bees that if we get a temperature fall out those bees can can thicken up on the frames of brood and keep that brood warm allowing these foragers and other bees that are here to continue doing their job um we're we're almost there we've almost completed this task i want to now get mama she's ready she's ready to get back in that box where it's warm she's right here okay there she is but put me in coach we're closed in the front we've got bees here that are that are going to start responding to we've got all this brood but where's mama so you're going to watch the release here we're going we want her to walk down into that hive she's coming around on jason's side she just released she's in okay y'all just walked through a split with me that is a box with a overwintered queen there's four frames of capped brood pollen nectar eggs i'm sure up to emerging bees this is going to make a great split okay i want to talk to you a little bit as i button these bees up i want to talk to you a little bit about what we're going to do with that box of bees it's cool this morning there's there's no worries of me overheating those bees in the box these bees have plenty of honey up top i could have taken that frame of honey below but you know the truth is these bees that are producing a queen need more resources than these bees who have a queen now she and her mind has formed she's left the bees have gone with her these bees in this box understand a decline in population um what i want to explain to you a little bit now isn't it rather than going okay we're done good luck we're going to tell you you just watched all that i don't think that i missed a step that you either didn't see or i explained here's our split we got bees in the box with a queen this is a new colony of bees you've got three or four choices and if you ask 10 bee keepers you're going to get about 12 different replies that's perfectly fine everybody does this different people there's not a there's not a set flip to page nine step by step um you're going to get a method that works for you and when it starts working you're continually going to be tweaking and making uh just little steps to improve make your time better make it faster make it more efficient here here it is you've made you split what are we going to do with them we could leave these bees right here on the stand slide the mother hive to the end position of the stand replace our split with that allow them to stay locked up for three hours or so start opening the gates on the moving robbing these bees that are in the field respond to location when they come back in they're going to continue continue to come to the location not necessarily this hive these bees are all still family right now they all still smell the same they all know her smell um that's one way so that will equalize that will help you with some of your drift drift is when you've got this box open and these bees go out to forge and return back to here okay so there's an option you could turn this box 180 on the end put the opening the opposite direction and open them up but you're going to get drift these bees will now leave and when they come back being this close proximity they're gonna they're gonna come back to their hive most of the time you'll you'll knock some of that down by having opposite-facing entrances okay another option is we we pick this hive up and we carry it we pick up our split and we carry it 80 yards or we carry it back here on the back 80. um we set it down we open it up when we open it up we're going to force these bees to reorientate to this hive's location by doing that we would we would open these gates up and we would affix this brush over the entrance so that when they start out of this box they're picking their way through this this greenery they're picking their way through this what we're doing by that is we're making them reset by the time they pick out through this that they're understanding it this is not the way it started this morning i'm going to have to relocate to the sun and and the coordinates of this new location so that when i leave here i can come back and find it you leave this on the remainder of the day allowing that to be a problem for them making them understand they've moved you all got to get this new location down another thing that can be done you can if you have another yard if you have another property if you have a just a friend who doesn't mind you bringing this box of bees you would take it to that location that location if if you go back through all the beekeepers answers is going to be about three miles from here you go to to said location if you can find it set the bees out open them up put feed on them seven days later you can bring those bees right back to your apiary and set them down where you want it um these will all these things will work the last mention of the further the move you make the better your response you get to the bees becoming that tight-knit colony and staying put the closer you stay to the donor hive the more drift that we're going to get these foragers that i've shaken into this box coming and going back in unless you do some of these tips to prevent it i hope that i have said this where it's understandable i hope i i know beyond a shadow of a doubt that jason has filmed it where you've seen it um we appreciate y'all's comments on these videos we do our very best to get you all answered um like i said this is my method of splitting it doesn't make it to be the hundred percent right way only there's a lot of great ways to do it i'm not going to go into all that today i just want you to know how much we do appreciate y'all watching us subscribing and liking what we're doing we thank you very much and until we see you again roll that beautiful bee footage have a great day [Music] you

Channel: Central Beekeepers Supply

Views: 195,354

Keywords: beekeeping 101, how to, how to start beekeeping, new to beekeeping, hive bodies, honeybee, hive split, how to split a hive, hive splitting tutorial, hive box, beekeeping 201, how to do a hive split, beekeeper tutorial, spring 2021, professional apiarist, step-by-step beekeeping tutorial, Queen Clip, queen split box, split box, catching the queen bee, spring 2022

Id: 5-UMbEkxBuQ

Length: 38min 59sec (2339 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021