> If you split now, late July, would you use queens, cells or is there  time 
> for walk away splits.  What honey plants are yet to bloom in  southern 
> Alberta?

There should be enough bloom.  Canola goes on until sometime in September as 
does alfalfa, and clover and various weeds, but the days get shorter and the 
flows cut in and out.  Late pollen is probably not as good, since the trees 
are all done by now and we are down to clover and canola and whatever else 
they can find.  I see some faba around, but it does not have a great 
reputation as bee forage.

I am a bit concerned about the time between the startup of a new queen and 
the time the bees need to prepare their new brood chamber for winter.  There 
was some talk here on BEE-L a decade or so back that for some reason the 
bees do not begin the raising of winter bees as early in hives which have 
new queens coming on late.  On thinking it over, I have doubts about that 
and think that other factors are more important.

Flows might be a real concern, as could the amount of time the bees need to 
rearrange their hive for winter.   I have no worries about honey and am 
feeding as much patty as they will take to compensate for the poorer quality 
of late pollen and the size of the foraging force in the queenright hives. 
I notice some of the hives have slowed their patty consumption a bit now 
that the main flow is on, but when it ebbs or it rains, they will use it. 
Some, for whatever reason are still eating 1-2 lbs a week. We have lots of 
drones and good mating weather.

Will the bees be as eager to make replacements now that the swarming season 
is tapering off? (We seldom see swarms in August no matter how we crowd the 
bees at that time).  I think so.  If they don't, the splits that fail won't 
be a total loss.  They can be combined back.  More details are scattered 
among the trivia in my diary. 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned 
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html