> I have used many different splitting approaches, all based on the usual
assumptions, and although they all work, I wonder if I am making best use of
the resources and also minimizing stress on the bees.

Allen, I also regularly think about the same subject.

For background for others, the question revolves around this:  if you split
too large, it is difficult to get cells accepted, and you may be "wasting"
bee production by not having all the bees working optimally.

However, if you split too small, then too many bees are involved in simple
thermoregulation, and don't cover enough area to take advantage of the
queen's laying ability.

If we look at other animal models, you would want to split at the most
vertical portion of the sigmoid growth curve, which is something that the
bees do naturally when swarming--a colony swarms just before its population
"explodes" due to the proportion of sealed brood.

Some ref years ago stated that this would occur at about 10 frames of bees,
so the implication would be to keep your splits close to 10 frames.
Unfortunately, splits this side accept cells poorly.  If you were using
caged mated queens, that would not be a factor.

We have good success with 5-frame splits, containing 2-3 frames of brood,
and giving them ripe cells.  That way we don't waste too much bee labor when
they go through the 10-12 days without a laying queen, but they have a large
enough cluster when she finally does start laying to allow her to lay up a
lot of brood quickly.

I have no idea if this is optimum, but it works well for us.

Randy Oliver

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