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Splitting the Hive and Finding the Queen

Finding the Queen -

This can be a bit of a hunt and it took us a while to find the queen. I have a picture down below and at the bottom of this page I have a video showing the queen.

Splitting the Hive

Of the two hives one of them is doing well and the other is not doing so well. You can see the two hives in the picture below although this was earlier in the season. The hive on the right now has a whole lot of bees and the hive on the left not so many. Probably the bees in the good hive are stealing from the dead hive.

This process of splitting is a great way to start a new hive if you already have a hive going well. Let's say you are doing great with your bees and you want another hive but you don't want to spend the money or wait the right time to buy a queen. Then you can split the hive you already have.

Well, what we have done here is split the hive. It is the process of taking some of the resources from the healthy hive and moving them over to the dead hive. Ideally you want to move about 5 frames over to the new hive.

You take these five frames out of the hive, put them in a nuc or a frame and set it aside for an hour, then after the hour is up you put them in your hive to be re-queened.

Here are what the 5 frames should contain:

1. 1 Frame of eggs
2. 2 frames of open brood
3. 1 frame of nectar/honey
4. 1 frame of capped brood

The frame of eggs is absolutely critical. The nurse bees will create royal jelly and produce the new queen. So, take your time and go through the hive, everything under the excluder and find the queen.

The most important thing!

You have to absolutely locate the queen in your good hive and make sure you don't transfer her over to the new hive.