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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 24 Feb 2004 20:28:36 EST
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Kathy,

Recombine everything, wait a day or two until warmer weather, 65°-70°, and
start
over.
 FIRST, using little or no smoke, find the queen, and transfer her and the
frame she
is on into an empty hive body.  Then, no longer worried about the queen, move
your
frames and bees into the split box, put replacement frames back into the
parent colony, and then put the frame with the queen back in the parent colony.

You did not say that you had a new queen just waiting to be installed in the
split.
I hope you are not bent on letting the split raise a new queen on its own.
If so,
you are not diversifying the genetics of your bees, and there is a strong
chance
that a decent queen will NOT be produced, and further this split will be in
bad
shape before any new progeny is produced.  You would be SO MUCH BETTER OFF to
spend $10-$12 and buy a new queen from some local California queen breeder.
I am much aware that some readers are going to DISAGREE with me, and I don't
give a damn; but allowing your bees to raise a new queen for a split rather
than
furnishing a new queen 24 hours after the split is about as archaic as your
grandmother's bustle, or the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk, or Henry
Fords
Model T.

I hope I have helped

George Imirie, retired scientist
Certified Master Beekeeper

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