Allen Dick wrote:
>FWIW, the walk-aways I did last year on Auzzie italian package colonies
>yielded over 100 lbs last year, wintered well, and gave three large splits
>each this spring... and I expect they will need splitting again before I go
>east in a few weeks.  To split, I just lift off a box with brood and set it
>aside.  The bees do the rest.  Yup, occasionally one fails to make a queen
>and must be recombined, but what doesn't fail occasionally

I wonder if Allen could share with us some helpful details of exactly hoe
he does a walk away split? The thing that troubles me most is how you
insure that there are eggs in the queenless half ? Also, does he practice
rotation of the hive bodies prior to the split? And how is the timing of
this process determined ? Is it relative to what flowers are blooming, or
relevant to how strong the hive bodies appear on a tip-over inspection?
Does it matter if there are active swarm cells or not? Is the "walk-away"
carried to a remote apiary or is it kept in the same apiary such that the
foragers can return to the original hive location?
         Thanks for any insights,
                 Ernie Huber


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