On Monday, April 18, 2005, at 10:57 AM, James Ireland wrote:

>   I will
> likely raise a few queens from my large hive this year but do no want
> an
> aggressive bee yard.
> So after all that- my 2 questions are:
> 1.) Should I combine my medium hives to make them stronger?
> 2.) Does anyone know of anyone in the US who raises great cordovan
> italians?
> Thanks,
> James
>
Hi James

You dont say where you are, but appear to be in the southern US.  My
answer for your big nasty hive is split the devil out of it.  I use
queen cells from a reliable breeder with 2 frames of brood and 2 frames
of food per split.  If done early enough(end of May here), you will
have a producing hive in time for the main flow(mid July here).  Dont
raise queens from that hive unless you want several more nasties.
Instead of combining weak hives, split them as above.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
80west44north

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