There was a break in the weather today, so I added another hive. Yesterday we had 3+ inches of rain. Not exactly a good day to work the bees, but I split a really strong hive of Italians. The process was as follows –
- Two weeks ago I searched for the queen but could not locate her. Both brood boxes were covered with bees and I went through twice.
- I added a queen excluder on top of the bottom brood box and 2-inch shim with an entrance over that, then the top brood box.
- Above that I added another queen excluder and a medium honey super.
The shimmed entrance was to give the drones an escape and also allow foragers easier access to the honey super.
Last week I looked for the queen again but still could not find her. With the setup above I was able to figure out that she was in the top box. It had larva and newly capped brood. The bottom box had mostly empty comb, pollen, and honey. What to do? The honey super was nearly full so I added another.
My original plan was to do a walk away split (OTS method). Not being able to locate the queen kind of crippled those plans. I decided to purchase a new queen and do a more traditional split. After determining I could get a new queen on Saturday I was excited, but then it naturally rained all day and complicated the process.
There was a small window around 10 a.m. when it was cloudy but no rain was falling, so I hurried out and split the hive. I removed all the upper boxes and slid the bottom (queenless) box over about 3 feet. I did my normal screened bottom board, entrance reducer, slatted rack, brood box, and covers. I also added a leafy branch to the entrance, just like I did to the new swarm hives.
New queen
Around 2:00 p.m. yesterday I headed out in the stormy weather and purchased an Italian queen from Jordy’s Honey. Since it was pouring rain at the time and supposed to be sunny today, I decided to wait to introduce her. I gave her and the attendants a drop of water and a drop of honey swiped across the screen and put them in a warm, dark place for the evening.
Late this morning I introduced the new queen. The “new” box had been queenless for around 24 hours and the sun was finally shining again. First I removed the cork covering the candy and poked a hole through. The candy was still fresh and soft.
I removed a frame of empty comb and swapped it with one from the original hive that had capped and open brood, shaking off all the nurse bees before the swap. I also added the full honey super from the original hive just to even out the resources. That also added a full medium box of bees to the new hive. Since they were only apart for 24 hours, hopefully they will all get along. I’m also thinking the honey super is mainly foragers and will not reject the queen as easily as the nurse bees might. It might also help to compensate for the drift back to the old hive.
The weather forecast is for rain and thunderstorms Monday through Wednesday, so the plan will be to go in on Thursday to see if they have accepted and released the queen. I’m keeping my antenna crossed.
