>
>   Early in the bee season you can On the US east coast I have found that
> later it in the year it is important to place the intended split brood
> above a queen excluder and the queen for 4 to 5 days.  This is to make sure
> the bees do not have viable options for making their own queen.  I start
> with 1 or 2 frames of brood, often from different colonies, always in a
> different box.  I give them 12 to 24 hrs to come to grips with their
> queenlessness, before adding a queen.
>

I can see where my "walk away" split could have caused confusion.  It was
not my intention to add a queen, but two queens were offered.

It appeared that the queens were rejected and the bees acted as they do
with a walk away split.

My method of beekeeping has always been with walk away splits until
recently, when there were no other beekeepers in the area. Then I ran into
problems so had to purchase queen a couple of years to diversify the blood
line. It is true that inbreeding is not good for bees.

Now that I have a beekeeper in the area (with more to come),I have gone
back to walk away splits from my best hive.I do that every year and it is
successful in getting good bees that do well in my area.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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