I've been lurking here for a while now. Until now, I didn't have much to post. Now I really need some advice from those more experienced members.
A little about my setup:
I started with 2 packages of Italians in early May this year. I use 8 frame medium Langs (foundationless) but I went to narrowed frames about a month back to get 9 frames in each brood boxes. Both hives have 2 mediums for brood. One hive (the more productive of the 2) has had a honey super (7 frames evenly spaced) on it for several weeks now (no excluder), but the bees have not drawn out the comb up there. They do tend the 3 combs of brood that are almost all hatched out now. We've been lucky with the rain this year, unlike other areas.
Here's what I did 6 days ago (and see if you can anticipate how this could go horribly wrong...):
I decided to do a cut down split, that is to remove the queen, 2 frames of sealed/ almost sealed brood, and 1 frame of mixed pollen and honey from the more productive hive to free up the workers so they don't have to tend brood. This is supposed to result in more honey in the target hive, plus another laying queen after about 4 weeks.
And here's where things are now. Either a smashing success, or not. I guess I'm undecided...
The nuc (with the queen and 3 frames) is doing fine. Bees are tending the brood, which is still not all sealed. Hardly any field bees, but that's ok for now. The queen is active, but does not appear to be laying: no eggs or young larvae. I'm not sure if this is a problem, yet. The original hive, however, has many more queen cells than I anticipated, and the placement/positioning of most of them makes me think the girls may have decided to do some swarm prep (without consulting me first!). Five frames have queen cells (I'll try to post pics below). None were capped 2 days ago. I inspected again today, and five of the cells are now capped.
Here's the evidence...
Frame 1 with 5 cells, 1 capped.
Frame 2 with 3 cells, 1 almost capped.
Frame 8 (of 9 in this super where the queen was laying) with 3 cells, 1 capped. I'm not sure why this frame is so far from the others. I may have moved it, or maybe that's where the queen had space to lay.
I had moved this frame into another super to protect the queen cells. My notes showed that there were two cells about half way down the comb. Now I see there are 3 cells on the bottom edge, 2 are capped. On next inspection, I will closely check for the two cells that I noted in the previous inspection.
Lastly, there is another frame with 2 queen cells, but it was in a different super from the others at the time when I did the cut down split. Not sure if they are empty, but I will confirm on the next inspection. I reached the image upload limit, and could not add this pic after trying to delete a few that now show as attached thumbnails. (Can't seem to delete them!)
That's what I know to share, here's what I'm thinking...
I am leaning towards using equipment to create 2 or 3 separate hives (the limit of my supply on hand) from these frames. I would have to get some lumber to expand the stand setup into a longer platform, or I could stack the hives. Any advice on stacking vs not stacking? I can balance the risk of having some weak hives as we get into autumn by combining those that need help.
The option I like less is to leave all of these frames together, as I am concerned about a swarm that I will be unable to capture. Am I reading the above correctly? The bees aren't saying.
I would prefer not to cull any of the cells, but let the stronger queens win out. I wanted one more hive to prepare for the winter, now I may have 3 more!
Observations? Advice? Questions?
I know you'll all do your best to help me out of what may be a bad (or a good) situation.
Thanks in advance,
Brad
A little about my setup:
I started with 2 packages of Italians in early May this year. I use 8 frame medium Langs (foundationless) but I went to narrowed frames about a month back to get 9 frames in each brood boxes. Both hives have 2 mediums for brood. One hive (the more productive of the 2) has had a honey super (7 frames evenly spaced) on it for several weeks now (no excluder), but the bees have not drawn out the comb up there. They do tend the 3 combs of brood that are almost all hatched out now. We've been lucky with the rain this year, unlike other areas.
Here's what I did 6 days ago (and see if you can anticipate how this could go horribly wrong...):
I decided to do a cut down split, that is to remove the queen, 2 frames of sealed/ almost sealed brood, and 1 frame of mixed pollen and honey from the more productive hive to free up the workers so they don't have to tend brood. This is supposed to result in more honey in the target hive, plus another laying queen after about 4 weeks.
And here's where things are now. Either a smashing success, or not. I guess I'm undecided...
The nuc (with the queen and 3 frames) is doing fine. Bees are tending the brood, which is still not all sealed. Hardly any field bees, but that's ok for now. The queen is active, but does not appear to be laying: no eggs or young larvae. I'm not sure if this is a problem, yet. The original hive, however, has many more queen cells than I anticipated, and the placement/positioning of most of them makes me think the girls may have decided to do some swarm prep (without consulting me first!). Five frames have queen cells (I'll try to post pics below). None were capped 2 days ago. I inspected again today, and five of the cells are now capped.
Here's the evidence...
Frame 1 with 5 cells, 1 capped.


Frame 2 with 3 cells, 1 almost capped.



Frame 8 (of 9 in this super where the queen was laying) with 3 cells, 1 capped. I'm not sure why this frame is so far from the others. I may have moved it, or maybe that's where the queen had space to lay.


I had moved this frame into another super to protect the queen cells. My notes showed that there were two cells about half way down the comb. Now I see there are 3 cells on the bottom edge, 2 are capped. On next inspection, I will closely check for the two cells that I noted in the previous inspection.

Lastly, there is another frame with 2 queen cells, but it was in a different super from the others at the time when I did the cut down split. Not sure if they are empty, but I will confirm on the next inspection. I reached the image upload limit, and could not add this pic after trying to delete a few that now show as attached thumbnails. (Can't seem to delete them!)
That's what I know to share, here's what I'm thinking...
I am leaning towards using equipment to create 2 or 3 separate hives (the limit of my supply on hand) from these frames. I would have to get some lumber to expand the stand setup into a longer platform, or I could stack the hives. Any advice on stacking vs not stacking? I can balance the risk of having some weak hives as we get into autumn by combining those that need help.
The option I like less is to leave all of these frames together, as I am concerned about a swarm that I will be unable to capture. Am I reading the above correctly? The bees aren't saying.
I would prefer not to cull any of the cells, but let the stronger queens win out. I wanted one more hive to prepare for the winter, now I may have 3 more!
Observations? Advice? Questions?
I know you'll all do your best to help me out of what may be a bad (or a good) situation.
Thanks in advance,
Brad
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