When to make a split?
 
Assuming queens are available, I make splits about two weeks before the start
of the swarming period.  In my Washington, DC area I try for the second week
in April.
 
How to make a split?
 
1.  If you've never done this before, enlist the help of someone who has.
 
2.  Select a hive with a good population to split.
 
Assuming you use deeps:
 
2.  Set up your split hive with one box, new frames and undrawn foundation.
 Pull three of the new frames out of the box.
 
3,   Remove from your strong hive three frames.  One should be mostly honey,
while the other two should have uncapped larvae and old capped brood.   Ther
should also be lots of bees on the frames.
 
4.   Inspect these frames for the queen.  When you are satisfied the queen is
not on a frame, put it in the center of your split hive.  Group all three
frames you took from your strong hive together.
 
4a.  If the queen is on one of the frames you selected, take her off that
frame and put her back in the strong hive from whence she came.
 
5.   Install the three foundation frames you removed from the new hive as end
frames in the strong hive you just split.  Close up the strong hive.
 
6.   Install your new queen in the split hive you just created using normal
queen introduction methods.
 
7.  Install a gallon of 1/1 sugar syrup feed on the split hive.  This will
jump-start things.  You may also want to install an entrance reducer.
 
8.  Close up the new colony, and don't touch it for a week - 10 days.
 
9.  Remove the queen cage from the new colony.  Check for new eggs to show
the new queen has been accepted.
 
10.  Manage the new colony like a first-year package colony.
 
If you use medium brood chambers like me, make your splits with 4 frames from
the parent colony.
 
By the way, splits are a great swarm control technique, as they radically
reduce congestion in the colony.  If you wish, you can re-unite a split with
the orignial parent colony when the honeyflow starts and add to your honey
production (as well as requeen your colony).  Splits are also a good source
of cash.  This year, I will be selling my splits for $50/each.
 
W. G. Miller
Gaithersburg, MD