>
> > I firmly believe that this [late summer splits] is a practice worth
> becoming "trendy".


Glad to see you posting, Melanie!  Please kick Mark to do so, too!

I've visited beekeepers all over the US and Canada, and overwintering nucs
is really catching on!  The problem is, that it is difficult to incorporate
into almond pollination contracts.  I have tried and tried, but can't
reconcile the numbers.  Growers don't want to rent nucs (unless you work
them into singles as 4-framers).  I get paid $17-$20 per frame for rent, so
leaving a 4-frame nuc home to babysit a queen costs me $68 in lost rent.

I've experimented these last years with running two queens in a split bottom
brood chamber below an excluder, with a box of honey above, with fair to
excellent results.  I'd be curious to hear if anyone else has tried running
splittable two-queen colonies to almonds.

Randy Oliver

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