I'm a second year beekeeper.

I found this idea quite interesting last year so I tried my hand at it on May 10 
this year and crossed my fingers.  After about a month I began paying more 
attention to the new split.  After a couple more weeks I saw lots of pollen 
being brought into the hive.  Upon opening the hive I saw that I needed to 
add another hive body.  They're close to filling the second box.

Based upon the temperment of the bees I'd guess that there is a new queen 
and she probably mated primarily with drones not from my colonies.  There is a 
noticeable difference from the other bees I have.

I'd chalk this up to being a successful first attempt.  I plan on doing this 
regularly in the future but possibly with one variation.  I think I'll try moving 
the queen into the new split.  I want to interrupt the brood cycle of the more 
populated parent hive by removing the queen and letting them create a new 
one.  This should help reduce the Varroa population.

Dan

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