>One last question,

Not likely : )

  >when do you usually makethose splits?  Whats the general timing to have
strong colonies,  and still have strong hives for honey?

Ah, and therein lies the rub!  How to manage so that you have the strongest
possible hive at the start of the main flow, without losing half of such
colony to a  swarm.  And as you point out, depends completely upon the
timing between when you can first rear queens and when your main flow
begins.

I can only speak for my area.  Due to almonds, I have abundant drones by
mid March, and can mate queens at that time.  My main flow begins in mid
May, but really hits its stride in June, over by early July.

And then what does one call a "strong" colony?  Let's arbitrarily say 10
frames covered with bees at the start of the main flow, with plenty of
sealed brood.  Obviously, a 20-frame colony would be stronger, and produce
more honey.

In my area, a 5-frame nuc, with 3 frames of brood and a new queen on April
1 will easily make 10 frames by late May.  So I look at my window of
opportunity as being 6 weeks.  I make 5-frame nucs with queens that are in
full lay by April 1, 6-frame nucs if a week later, 7-frame if a week later,
and so forth.

We simply combine nucs to make them up to strength as appropriate, so that
our entire operation hits the main flow at about the same strength.

I get the feeling that the break in the brood cycle by starting nucs with
queen cells makes for healthier colonies.  We also use the opportunity to
set varroa back to near zero with an oxalic dribble.


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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