Brett D Bannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>     How well does it work to just split my double body hives, letting
>the one raise their own queen, as compared to waiting for swarm cells to
>be available before making the split.  Would appreciate comments on this
>process---it helps me make up my mind on the best way to make increase.
>Thanks in advance.
 
If your goal is to avoid losing bees because they swarm, it would make
sense to see if they ever do show signs of swarming before splitting.  If
they do not swarm that hive will make more honey for you than the two
splits put together because they will spend so much effort just drawing out
the comb that you have removed to make the split.
 
If your goal is to have more hives, it would make sense to me to buy queens
to add to the split.  Queens produced by a split are emergency queens and
aren't necessarily of good quality.  Commercially raised queens from a
reputable source are raised under much better conditions and should perform
better.  The queen will be the mother of her hive so it's important to have
one that will be prolific, of good quality and known origin.  There's no
telling what kind of bees are out there for your emergency queen to mate
with.  Commercial queen producers use queens of known progeny and quality
that are mated in beeyards that have hives of known progeny putting out
drones.  It costs a little bit more but makes sense in the long run.
 
I have fought the urge to swarm in the past and lost bees.  This year I
didn't fight the urge to swarm but worked with it.  I made splits from
hives that had swarm cells and cut out the swarm cells in the split that
already had a queen.  They seem to have worked out just fine and are
building up for honey flow.  Last year I cut out queen cells, didn't split,
the hive swarmed anyway and then I was left with a queenless hive.  Lesson
learned.
 
While queens raised for swarming aren't as good as supersedure queens, I
think they're better than emergency queens.  Commercial queens can really
fall anywhere on that scale depending on the source and conditions under
which she was raised.  It's still a gamble but the odds are better in your
favor.
 
If you split, make sure you have queen cells or eggs that are less than 72
hours old in the split that doesn't have a queen.  If you're not sure which
split has the queen, you can make sure that both splits have queen cells
and eggs that have been laid in the last 72 hours.  Go back later, find the
queen and cut swarm cells out of her hive.  I'd recommend feeding the
splits as much sugar water as they'll take.  They will use that to make
comb and then nectar will be stored as honey, not used to make comb.
 
Just opinions based on my experiences, FWIW.
 
Ted Wout
Red Oak, TX