Is it time?

[Becky Hampton]

Is it too early to make a split? I have a packed hive with lots of capped brood, larva, LOTS of drone brood, some drones walking around on the brood, multiple open swarm cells, a queen, lots of pollen and nectar, and left over honey. I'd like to split them before they swarm...

[Jacobs]

I am seeing the same thing in my strongest hives, but not in my average hives. I saw Wally's post in the bee removal section of this board saying it was a good time to do a trap out, in part, because drones were flying. If you are going to let the split requeen itself, that will give even more time to have more mature drones available for mating flights. I gave my hives more space by adding a medium with some honey, but mostly with open, drawn comb. I'm trying to buy just a little more time before I make splits.

One thing I would consider is finding the queen and putting her in a nuc with a couple of frames of brood and nurse bees, frames of honey, pollen, and an open, drawn frame. I would shake some more bees in with her. Make sure there are still eggs in the original hive. This will mimic a swarm to a degree and leave a strong foraging force in the original hive for the upcoming flow. If the bees in the large hive are not successful at requeening, you will be in a position to give them a frame of eggs/brood from the original queen and let them make another attempt. There is also the bonus of a period of brood interruption in the original hive that may help with varroa mite control.

[Becky Hampton]

Thanks, Rob. I am planning on moving the queen to the new hive and letting the mother hive requeen itself. I'm hoping they'll make a good queen with the eggs left behind. I figure that's 21 days - then another week to 10 days to mate and return. By that time there should be lots of drones flying and lots of pollen/nectar sources. Of course, they're bringing in lots of pollen and nectar right now from maples and whatever else...
I had a pretty bad mite problem in the fall, so was also thinking this brood break would help break that cycle.

[Locust & Honey]

I did a split yesterday.......not saying that was the best choice but they were ready and I think the weather is good enough. Plus, I have 5 out of 7 hives with drones flying.

[Becky Hampton]

Good news is that we've got a couple of really nice days coming up and no freezing weather in the forecast. That will help everything keep blooming and growing without setbacks for nectar and pollen.