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Date: | Sun, 18 Jun 2023 14:02:33 +0000 |
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I think they must not be very good messengers. I routinely do splits a bit different than most folks. Say I have a strong hive and I fear swarming. I need to open the brood nest to give the existing queen room to lay. So, I pull four or five frames of bees and brood making sure at least one has some eggs in it and put in a new deep. I give the original colony empty replacement frames some of which may be simply foundation. I put a couple of honey supers, or maybe three on top of the double brood chamber with no queen excluder between the brood chambers and the supers. On top of the honey supers I put a queen excluder followed by a shim that has an entrance hole on the back side of the original hive. On top of the shim I put that deep with the four or five frames of brood and bees.
Then I simply leave the whole stack alone. My original hive still has all the bees. I have not removed any resources that will reduce the honey that hive gathers. About 80% of the time that top box raises a new queen and she gets mated ok. Depending on how strong the original hive is you can pull that top box in two weeks and set it on a new stand or simply leave it until the new queen is laying at about four weeks. If it is a real strong hive you can remove at two weeks and do exactly the same game a second and even a third time without weakening the parent colony very much and that much time will get you out of swarm season. By the end of two weeks if you are going to pull the split much of the brood will have emerged and gone down into the hive below. You will also have a lot of flying bees using that upper entrance so when you move the box the flying bees go right back to their original home. So, even thou you take five frames loaded with bees you really have not taken all that much from the original colony.
Now, why does that top box raise a new queen so reliably? They are as good at raising a new queen as a walk away split. If worker bees are so good at spreading queen pheromones all over the hive a box on top should not raise a new queen. I question the idea that workers spread queen pheromone.
By the way, if you do not give that top box anything to raise a new queen from or if you kill any queen cells they start you can put in a frame of grafts a few days after you set the hive up and they will raise you some nice queens if you need more than the one queen you get from a split. You do not need a queenless starter hive or anything to get them to raise new queens from grafts. How can they do this if workers are bringing up queen pheromone?
Dick
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