Scott

You asked about splitting too much (cutting the population too
drastically). I too split every hive in the early spring some years ago
with reasonable success. I would like to share my more recent experience
with "no splits" hive management.

Currently, I do no splits. Instead, I let those hives that have excess
population swarm naturally. I then collect the swarms as the sole means
of hive increase. No queen replacement is necessary since all queens
breed locally as needed. The downside is the intense labor needed to
collect and hive up the swarms especially in mid May. Good swarms will
produce 1 medium super full of honey. An exceptional one will do 2 or 3
supers. Very few swarm colonies die out although queen replacement via
supercedure appears common. With this method of hive management, no
queen cells should be removed at any time. The original parent colonies
typically produce 1 to 2 supers of honey. I use excluders on new swarm
colonies, no excluders on parent colonies.

This method of hive management is certainly not for everyone, but it
works well for me.

Wade
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