> I had also never seen the machinery the Miller's were using to shake bees
and make splits.  Why do they assume most of the queens die in the process?

I've been to John Miller's split-making line a few times (my wife used to
be in charge of his crew of women putting in queen cells the next day).  I
also took the director of the film there to see it (the year prior to
filming).

It's pretty impressive--although I've challenged him to put his crew
against me and my sons on a man-for man basis : )

He runs a crew of about 10.  Pallets of full hives come in by forklift at
one end; pallets of identical single splits out the other.  His method is
very different than mine--machinery scrapes and deboxes the frames (we use
hand deboxers) and then each frame is put into separate racks for brood,
honey, drawn comb (we sort and transfer each frame directly into nuc
boxes).  The crew at the assembly end then puts the frames (with adhering
bees, plus additional shook bees if necessary) into singles, adding some
frames of fresh foundation.

There are bees everywhere--hanging from the tent, nearby shrubs, and in
clumps all over.  These get shaken off and dumped into the splits.

John runs a meticulous operation.  His trucks, warehouses, and extracting
building are spotless.  He truly loves his bees, and is a model beekeeper
on the commercial scale.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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