Hi Cindy,

You didn't say where you are in NYS, but I principally agree with Aaron that
you can do splits anytime between now and September 1.  I have been doing
splits for year 2000 for the past two weeks and I will continue to do so
until at least the beginning of August.

The splits I have been making and will make until July 15 are of the
"walk-away" type.  This means I let them raise their own queen.  After July
15 I will either give them a queen cell or a laying queen.  (I will only get
about 80% good queens from my "walk-away" splits; since you have so few
hives, you should consider giving your splits laying queens to get a higher
percentage.)  These splits consist of 2 frames of sealed brood and eggs, one
frame of mostly capped honey and pollen, one frame of foundation and a
division board feeder.  I put a 1/8th plywood board down the middle of a
standard deep, nail another sheet of 1/8" plywood on the bottom of the deep,
and drill a 1" hole in the top corner on opposite sides.  This hole is the
entrance/exit for the bees on each side.  When the bees are inside, lay a
strip of burlap over the entire top so the bees can't travel from one side
to the other by crossing the bars.  Use a standard hive cover.  Put these
two nucs (in one hive body) near your existing hives and stuff the holes
full of green grass to prevent robbing until your nucs/splits have had some
time to settle down.

I believe the race of queen has a lot to do with the success in
over-wintering nucs in this climate.  Carnolians are very stingy with using
winter stores, and I highly recommend you use that race.  If you are
anywhere Betterbee, he has some good Carnolians now that are just in from
California.  518-692-9669.

You have to feed these 1:1 sugar syrup to get them to draw out the sheet of
foundation.  After that you may or may not want to continue to feed, it
depends on your fall flow.  The objective is to have the frames
"plugged-out" come October.  Plugged-out means that there is little to no
empty cells for the queen to lay eggs in.  Treat for Varroa in
August/September (one strip, each nuc).

In October take the inner and outer covers off one of your strong hives and
put the hive body with the two nucs on top.  Prop up one side or end of the
nucs with stones or wood so there is about a 1/4" air space for ventilation
for the bottom hive.  The 1/8" plywood has an r-value of less than 1, so
plenty of heat from the lower hive will rise and help warm the nucs.

Come April 2000 you should have two strong nucs and one strong hive.  Put
each nuc/split a standard hive with either drawn or undrawn foundation.
Feed syrup until all frames are well drawn or dandelions bloom, whichever is
later.  Watch these nuc/splits carefully and keep adding supers as needed as
they will explode in population around the time of dandelion bloom and are
likely to swarm if not given enough room.  The queens in these nucs will
start laying in January/February, and these over-wintered nucs are far
superior to either packages or spring nucs.

Every year I produce (near Albany, NY) 40-50 over-wintered nucs using these
techniques.  Moreover, Kirk Webster, mentioned by Aaron, uses much the same
technique to annually produce and over-winter several hundred nuc/splits in
Central Vermont.

Best of luck and please don't hesitate to call or email if you have any
questions.

Lloyd
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