Do THIS Before Same Apiary Beehive Splits

Don't Make Beehive Splits In The Same Apiary Until You Do This!
In this comprehensive tutorial, we'll guide you through the process of splitting a beehive. Splitting a beehive is a common practice in beekeeping and involves creating two separate hives from one. This can be done for a variety of reasons, including to prevent overcrowding, to increase the number of hives, or to prevent swarming.
We'll start by discussing the best time to split a hive and the equipment you'll need. Then we'll walk you through the steps of preparing the new hive, including setting up frames, adding foundation, and transferring bees. We'll also show you how to locate the queen bee and make sure she's properly transferred to the new hive.
We'll cover the different methods of splitting a hive, including the walk-away split, the double-screen split, and the split board method. We'll explain the pros and cons of each method and help you choose the one that's best for your situation.
Additionally, we'll share tips on how to manage the new hives after the split, including feeding and monitoring for queen acceptance. We'll also discuss how to prevent issues like robbing and swarming.
This video is perfect for beekeepers of all levels, from beginners to experienced beekeepers looking to expand their beekeeping skills. With our detailed instructions and practical advice, you'll be able to successfully split your beehive and create healthy, thriving hives. So, join us and let's get started!
Making Beehive Splits - Splitting Bees In The Same Apiary - How to Split a Beehive - Making Splits with Bees
In this video I am splitting bees in the same apiary. I show you how to split a beehive and continue my series on making splits with bees.
Splitting hives with a new queen, splitting hive in spring or splitting hives in the same apiary is an easy manipulation but you need to follow some key steps that are detailed in this video.
When splitting a beehive or making splits, you always need to ensure the beehive split is hopelessly queenless before the queen is released from her cage.
Splitting a hive into a nuc can be done in the same apiary or you can take the nucleus colony of bees to another apiary where they will re-orientate.
Black Mountain Honey is a No Nonsense Beekeeping Channel.
We are based in North Wales and manage around 150 colonies of bees, plus nucleus colonies.
We produce Great Taste Award winning honey and sell nucleus colonies to members of the public.
Our 6 frame overwintered nucleus colonies sell out very fast every year so early ordering is advisable.
www.blackmount...
We supply F1 Mated Buckfast Queens throughout the season. These are genetics used by the UK's biggest bee farmer - Murray McGregor - and are not available to general public, except through resellers like us! Check out our queens page on our website.
www.blackmount...
We are passionate about beekeeping and really enjoy helping beekeepers through our KZbin channel.
On our channel you can find information on making splits with swarm cells, making increase with queen cells, grafting larvae, foulbrood and disease inspection, honey extraction and machinery, top tips for beginners, products reviews, instructions and guidance plus much more.
#NO NONSENSE BEEKEEPING is a UK based beekeeping channel, designed to keep beekeeping as simple and enjoyable as possible. There are no overly complicated techniques or intricate pieces of equipment.
We cover all beekeeping topics ranging from queen rearing, disease recognition/control, honey extraction, swarm management/collection, how to make splits and much more!
My personal favourite aspects of beekeeping are selecting queens for rearing, rearing queens for mating, making up nucs for overwintering and collecting swarms.
We aim to bridge the gap between commercial and hobbyist beekeepers and cater for beekeepers of all experience levels.
No matter what your level of experience, please hit the subscribe button and join us on our journey!
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @blackmountainhoney
Joining our channel gives you a range of perks including 100% advert free videos and early access to premium video content.
Facebook - / blackmountainhoney
Twitter - / blackmounthoney
Instagram - / blackmountain_honey
Websites: www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk
Websites: www.hotfirehoney.co.uk
Nucs: www.blackmount...
Queens: www.blackmount...
If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our channel using the link below.
www.youtube.co...
Thanks for watching. Please give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Interested in having your own personal, expert online beekeeping mentor with access to exclusive advert free videos and priority replies to comments? Join the BMH bee mentoring programme HERE - www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk/beementoring

[@ASousaMakesIt]

You don't talk to much, you explain the process properly. I'm new to beekeeping and I'm going over all your videos because they are great!!! Thank you for the excellent content! Cheers from Portugal!

[@muddyfunker3014]

You most definitely don't talk too much. You're engaging and what you're saying is incredibly helpful certainly for me, a beginner in the UK. So grateful for this channel 👍🏻

[@greghamilton889]

Dunno who says you talk to much. You just describe everything really well.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks Greg. I get letters in the post 📫

[@greghamilton889]

@@BlackMountainHoney don't pay attention to them. Genuinely best part of your vids is how well you explain everything slowly. Certainly why I recommend you to newbies. I swear people complain for the sake of complaining.

[@nabooshaman6107]

Hi Laurence. If was being picky, you do sometimes waffle a bit and repeat yourself. I really like your videos, the information and how you present it. Some simple attention to editing out of repetition is all you need to do to slightly improve on what are already excellent videos. (IM very HO). (I don't think this particular vid. had much waffle in it.)

[@eliinthewolverinestate6729]

I did a split this year. They had built queen chambers. Took a couple of frames and a few hand fulls of bees. That I fanned into a ball in my hand. Find out here in few weeks when we got to camp on Labor day weekend (U.S.) I only moved them 100 yards but did lock them up for 48 hours. I only harvest once a year to make room. Lazutin hives I build with free wood and hives fit 17 Lazurin frames. Taking care of the bee's is easy. Honey is a lot of work.

[@XV24]

This is excellent free content- Talk too much? Some people complain too much!! One question for anyone- Can I use a new brood box instead of a nuc? Is brood box too big?

[@won2winit]

Laurence when I did this I turned the original hive through 180% and put the nuc behind it facing in the original direction so they got the foragers returning as I knew the parent hive would have plenty of bees to take over.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Its a good move but I much prefer to judge how many to add and them move them away. Your method certainly stocks them up really well though. Great tip, John

[@won2winit]

Great if you don't have a queen to add so they have the foragers to pile in the pollen for creating royal jelly. Video idea for next year.....

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@won2winit Mmm, its not actually the foragers you need. You need very young nurse bees. Cant beat the 10/10 method for royal jelly and starting queens

[@won2winit]

Once I convert my Paynes box's to 8 frames will give that a go...

[@nabooshaman6107]

I think foragers will be less accepting of a new queen, in comparison to having a colony stocked with as yet non-flying nurse bees.

[@rstlr01]

Went from 2 to 6 Apiaries this winter going to have one four-way pallet at 5 locations and mating yard dead center of them. Hopefully this gets me some well-mated Queens.

[@robinbeavan5152]

Ive heard that if you split to a hive next door that you should cover the enterance and front of hive with branches full of leaves and the bees coming out will reorientate better.dont know if it works but will be trying it in our apiary next year.

[@LukeTelff]

Thank you for this Video. So much appreciated information and all the planning and editing that goes into it and always having to reset everything up ever 8 days to film and explain. Thanks from Northern Canada.

[@g.morris570]

Loved this video ! Every thing said is important and usefully! I did a split last summer and you explained 2 things I observed.. small number of bees left in the nuc and a introduced queen geting balled when I opened the nuc to check on the queen on day 3.. thank you for content like this. I built a queen castle this winter& I am looking forward to trying that this coming season.

[@tomllewellyn4189]

Great video... even if you don't have another apiary there are sometimes places you can put a nuc for a few days while they accept a new queen. I sometimes use my allotment for this. Seems to work well. Then when they have accpeted a new queen I bring them back to the old site and the bees then seem to keep full allegiance to the new colony. And don;t go back to the old colony and if they do the old colony rejects them anyway.

[@MattEMaddock]

Perfect timing, having been wondering if I can do this! Done it today as I’ve got a very strong colony to split, and one empty nuc that’s recently been destroyed by wasps. Popped a couple of frames in the destroyed one along with a queen from yourselves, fingers crossed!

[@StonewallJackson-n8w]

What kind of wasps can destroy a bee hive ? My bees will attack yellow jackets. But I'm in Texas.

[@Alitotheg]

Awesome video, just what I wanted to watch, thanks

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@glynisreynolds446]

I watched a video earlier this year about splitting colonies in the same apiary which suggested semi blocking the entrance by piling twiggy/leafy sticks in front of it, and because I only have one apiary I thought I’d give it a go 🤔 I did try it a few times, blocking the bees in until evening then piling conifer branches in front of the unblocked entrance and I actually think it seemed to work 🤔🤔 I’m going to try it again next season - well I can’t do anything else really 🤷‍♀️

[@robbartels7786]

I am inexperienced and have been hesitant to do splits vs buying package bees. Question: why move the new nuc rather than moving the queened colony? It seems like the established and laying queen can regain momentum more quickly in the new location. It also seems that the nuc would benefit from the workers continuing to serve the established location. Thoughts? Thanks ... great video

[@BeaverZer0]

Splitting in your own apiary is fine you just won't get a lot of forragers staying in the split unless you swap it with the other ones position. They will assign new forragers. If you do it on a poor weather day they won't fly much either and you can keep them in the hive.

[@25221043]

What is the earliest time of year you would attempt to split if you were trying to boost your number of colonies ? cheers

[@BlackMountainHoney]

End April/early May

[@maggiescrase5667]

Hi - New beekeeper with a Hyde Hives 2 colony long hive. Could I use this approach using the second hive instead of a nucleus box?

[@craigjackson6450]

Great video, and one I will most certainly follow myself. But one thing has confused me - in the beginning you turned the nuc so that the entrance was facing the opposite direction to the original hive (turned it away from the camera). I get that, it confuses the bees, makes sense. But in the end of the video, the entrance was once again facing the original direction (facing the camera). So what happened there?

[@Jim26D]

I think they already accepted the queen at that point so they would be orientated to hive and wouldn't leave to the old one

[@climb315]

I simply love your videos and all that extra details!!

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks David. Glad you like the videos and extra details 😀

[@Jim26D]

How about if you don't have a mated queen for the split? Should they just raise one from the eggs in the split?

[@G1984Orwell]

getting so much from your videos! my spring nuc orders in!...

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@G1984Orwell Thank you. Glad you find them useful and thanks for your order! :)

[@etiennelabeille]

The foraging bees will return to the original hive (if you do nothing to confuse them) but the nurse bees will stay put on the brood. Does it matter that you now have just mostly nurse bees?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

No issue. They promote them a little faster to go out and forage. As long as they are well fed they resume normal business within a few days

[@etiennelabeille]

@@BlackMountainHoney Thanks. Great to follow your instructions and understand better.

[@russdean6598]

Great video.. Laurence would I get less drift if placed nuc opposite sides of the apiary, furthest away and opposite entrances.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Doesn't really make a massive difference. Any bees that will drift will do so regardless of where they are placed in the apiary. Just put them where it suits you.

[@JOSIANGREENVLOGS]

Super video.Does it mean that queen bee is released after 14 days.I. too a beekeeper from India.Thanks in advance.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

It depends when you add her. If you add her on day 0, it's day 10 she is released but you can add on day 8 and release on day 10 - she is then only caged for 48hrs

[@TheBritishbeeman]

If I do a walk away split then put the split where the hive was that I took the frames from to make the split. Will the original hive with the queen I moved be ok ? I’m new to the hobby so might sound like a silly question

[@MrAaroncornish]

Great video Laurence. Does it matter if you add frames with eggs on? Most of my brood frames have some eggs.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Eggs BIAS is fine. Just want as much capped/emerging brood as possible

[@stevefox8948]

Great demo thanks

[@BlackMountainHoney]

thanks Steve

[@robtalliss]

If only I had seen this yesterday before I did a split with the queen from you 😂😂. Hopefully it’ll be ok, the new nuc is about 8m from the hive it’s split from but does face the same way. Pleased to see this morning orientation flights outside the nuc. I’d been planning leaving the 👸🏼 three days before breaking the tab but looks as if I need to leave a few extra days. I have frame of brood, frame of stores and brood and a drawn frame and three foundation. Do you think I need to feed to encourage them to draw out the foundation?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Entrance direction isnt a massive issue. Just will still get drift. Wait until they have settled down and then feed syrup. If you do it straight away, the returning bees just rob out the nuc and you get left with nothing.

[@robtalliss]

@@BlackMountainHoney Thanks, I was thinking of adding syrup today, might leave until tomorrow then.

[@arronbwabw504]

Hi, I'm working in my back garden! Rather than use a Nuc for the split, will it be an issue if I use a new 2nd hive for the split?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

No it's fine. Just use a dummy board to make it a bit easier for them. Insulated one even better. Super simple and cheap to make

[@martenapperloo1055]

Were these mated queen's that you put in their, or did they have to go on a mating flight

[@BlackMountainHoney]

mated queens

[@veragiles981]

So informative!! Thanks!

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Glad it was useful 👍

[@oneshoo]

Outstanding video Laurence! Great explanation of “drift”. Once the queen is laying do you reverse the entrance or keep it facing the same way?? 👍

[@BlackMountainHoney]

I just keep it the same way as it is

[@soupvis2616]

@@BlackMountainHoney An old beekeeper told me that if the queen fly away she will come back to the same place , you have to let your box open for 15 min or so ...

[@TheBritishbeeman]

Grate videos mate 👌🏽 about if I haven’t got a mated queen to put into a spit ? Will they just make there own queen cheers

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yep. They certainly will. In this instance I'd put the mated queen into the nuc and let the original colony raise emergency cells to requeen

[@davemetcalfe9800]

I am a small scale keeper with one apiary, if I can organise a second apiary what distance between them is needed……..

[@bluelab5019]

As a matter of interest. If I make a split and take it to a mates apiary 10 miles away, how long do I have to leave it there before I can bring it back and the bees not realise they used to live there and not go back to the original hive?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

A good 4-6 weeks. The longer you leave it, the fewer will drift back once they return. Surprisingly, if you do it all over a weekend (tried this) you still get drift back to doner hive even after the bees have reorientated to a new location

[@bluelab5019]

@@BlackMountainHoney lovely, thank you👍👍

[@climb315]

Why if the bees will try to Sting/ball the qeen? P.s: there is nothing wrong with talking! Just more info! Thank you wery much! All the best to you from Europe :)

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks David. They will try to kill the new queen until they realise they have no capability to create a queen of their own. Then they will accept

[@climb315]

@@BlackMountainHoney thank you wery much for your reply. So if the bees try to sting/ball the Queen you simply just let the queen in the hive...Wait 7 days...remove emergency cels..then open the tap on the cage...

[@simbobcrafts4843]

Do you know how to transfer bees from a national to a langstroth hive?

[@headbangingzuluuk5058]

Great vid buddy any sign of the Langstroth vs National vid yet plz . Cheers

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers HBZUK. Still working on that one. Need to get my hands on a Lang wooden hive. Will probably be one for overwinter. Ill defo it one though. Its on my list :D

[@aprilbatley9265]

Question: i do have one hive currently it was a unexpected bee removal from January. Live in south ms and have a mentor. Its been warm, cold, nice, rainy, etc. im stating to think that its been too early with not enough consecutive warm dry days to turn the bees kinda from winter mood to spring mood and thats why they havent drawn out any of the new black plastic wax coated frame yet still only using some of the original comb i stuck in the hive. My question is, could there be any truth in my assumption?????

[@texascowgirl319]

This is a great video. I’ve really enjoyed all of your videos. Keep up the great content!! Oh and by the way, I don’t think you talk to too much.

[@DZ-wp1di]

Well made.

[@vytbbb7146]

is it bad to leave some eggs and make them develop a new queen in the same apiary?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

I'm not a fan of this. Dont like queens from emergency cells but that's just my view. Better to offer them a fully grafted cell

[@vytbbb7146]

@@BlackMountainHoney what are the downsides of emergency cells? Aren't grafted queens made from the same principle?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@vytbbb7146 You control the nutrition in grafted cells plus they don't have a 90 kink in them. Emergency cells are made under the Emergency impulse. Grafted cells are made under with swarming or supersedure impluse

[@vytbbb7146]

@@BlackMountainHoney thanks

[@robertholdsworth4498]

Nice video

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks Robert 😀 Glad you enjoyed it

[@Awapiaries]

How do you avoid robbing with splitting in the same apiary?

[@anthonyhill2455]

Where did the mated queens come from ?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

blackmountainhoney.co.uk

[@bettybogda4819]

Too much talking! No way! The more the better in my opinion.

[@mer-oneralphjr.bolinto6515]

how about a walk away split in the same apiary?

[@heatherhampton8967]

You leave her caged for 7 days and then put in the candy plug for another 7 days?

[@thewarrepath4516]

Why not let these bees in the split raise their own queen?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

I am not a fan of queens formed via the emergency impulse.

[@hannahmontoyalazar5533]

@@BlackMountainHoney thanks for sharing!! Loved the video

[@joshuafreeman889]

Why not just let the emergency cells run their course and not introduce a new queen in a cage? Is it just quicker?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Quicker, safer, more reliable and greater control over genetics. Walk away splits are fine though - all down to personal preference.