Hi All,

I did a search of the archives and found a handful of posts talking about
summer splits, and a couple sounded very positive for the over wintering
ability and success of summer split hives.  I have had, so far, a pretty
good first year of beekeeping and our flow is set to end sometime in mid
July.

I first of all will check for mites using the sticky board and Check-mite
medication procedure and then I'm thinking about a possible split of the
two hives.  Both colonies are strong right now and have young queens.  In
the splits I would place newly purchased queens.  I have a couple of
questions:

1.  Are summer splits a good or bad idea?

2.  When I requeen the split, is it better to go with an Italian or
Carniolan.  This is not to start a "which race is better" argument but to
see if the Italians are likely to build up faster during the summer (I
would be feeding them) than the Carniolans, giving them a bigger colony
going into winter and is this (a bigger colony) good or bad.

Thanks,

Brad