At 10:03 PM 5/28/96 +0000, you wrote:
>On Thu, 23 May 1996, Robin Wells wrote:
>
>> Franklin D. Humphrey Sr. wrote:
>> >
>> > I know of a hobbyist who winters 10 colonies and only 10 colonies each
year.
>> > He winters in double brood chambers and splits each spring using queen
cells
>> > or commercial queens as conditions require.  He then recombines  in the
fall
>> > keeping the younger queen.  ...
>
>> However one coloney split in to two will not produce as much
>> honey combined that same year as the one coloney would if
>> retained as one.
>
>In the south east of the UK, you'd say goodbye to at least half
>your crop, as these days, much comes from oilseed rape which
>flowers very early.
>
>Regards,
>--
>Gordon Scott   [log in to unmask]      [log in to unmask] (work)
>The Basingstoke Beekeeper (newsletter)      [log in to unmask]
><A HREF="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/apis">Embryo Home Page</A>
>Beekeeper; Kendo 3rd Dan; Sometime sailor.  Hampshire, England.
>
I think I need to clarify this method of swarm control.  When my friend
splits, He leaves 8 frames of brood and all the field bees with the original
hive.  This is done about the 1st of April  about 4 weeks before the main
honey flow.  When the honey flow starts, the colony is at full strength but
not so crowed as to cause swarming.  He also puts 2 to 3 supers on the
original colony when he makes the split.  He usually gets 3 supers of honey
from each in an average year.  I have used this method myself to make
increase and it works well here.  Part of the reason it works is that we
have a very short season.(mid May to Mid July at best)  I have one colony of
Yugos that I did this way this year and the main colony is working on it's
4th super of honey.  I checked the brood chamber the other day just to make
sure they were not about to swarm and found 10 frames of solid brood and no
queen cells.  There are enough bees to cover all ten frames ion the brood
chamber plus most of the frames in three of the four supers on the hive.
 
So for us here, in the southern US, this method works very well either for
swarm control, or for making increase.  I can't speak for any place else,
but that is a lot of honey in four weeks and a single brood chamber.
Franklin D. Humphrey Sr.
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