How to Split A Beehive and Prevent Swarming

[@426superbee4]

What BK wouldn't be happy with a frame of Supercedure Cells? You can take all the bees of a frame of supercedure cells and put it into a weak hive and cage the queen cells or take some off to put into a nuc with bees that are queenless to make splits and watch it BOOM then transfer the queens or make more splits.. and could make up to 5 or more splits from one Supercedure Cell frame depending on how many queen cells is on it...I would be happy too! That queen is laying EXCELLENT The basic ways of spotting a queen is : Long Pointed Abdomen, Short Wings, and the black spot on there backs are wider ! Then there no question about it at any size, solid colors or strips colors ... its a QUEEN Good blog cheers

[@mrbishi1000]

Hi, thanks for your vid. I'm a urban beekeeper in Qld Australia and interesting to see how things are done in other countries. Love the beehives, they're so ornamental compared to aussie hives. I just got my second hive last night and let them out this morning. they're doing fine. The other hive is due to rob and should yield about 20L as there's a fair bloom on at present in the reserves. I guess you guys get similar.

[@Super1builder]

Please keep us posted by video on the hives' progress. What a nice uncle you are. My uncle has yet to offer any assistance whatsoever.

[@moonlitesprite]

How lovely to see a family doing family activities and looking out for each other

[@JandjacresNet]

Excellent. We have bee's around here... somewhere. They were all over the yard and we enjoyed watching them go from wildflower to wildflower. Never could figure out where they were going to/coming from. It would be great to have a hive for honey collection, but for now, at least grateful that they are here on their own.

[@VictorFursov]

Thank you for interesting Video about beekeeping! Best greetings from Ukrainian beekeepers in Kiev, Ukraine! :)

[@johnbalogna803]

kind of new to bee keeping but I believe cells on the bottom of a frame are swarm NOT supercedure cells. either way giving them extra room MAY prevent swarming but its not a guarantee once they get the notion to swarm very little can stop them short of a procedure called damureing i believe but im sure but i bet I spelled it wrong either way. But that is a very intensive process.

[@beeslovetrees4509]

+john balogna Yeaht 1:30 it looks like what he was calling superseder (queen) cells are really drone cells lol

[@jeffjones7004]

Supersede cells are not swarm cells they are on the bottom of the frames supersede are cells are in the middle of the frames

[@adrianw2972]

Just about to make that point! ;) especially since he is indicating how well his queen is performing, but see below. also.... Checker-boarding can promote, not stop swarming, the queen becomes isolated from part of the brood and so her pheromone reduces on those frames, causing the bees on the isolated frames to create emergency queen cells (they think that they have no queen!) Once the swarming process has begun, many of the tactics used WILL fail. The simple fact is that you have to remove, the queen, the brood, or foraging bees from the hive - break the triangle. I think that Mr Snelgrove was brilliant, but misunderstood by the majority - his books are confusing to read IMHO. Snelgroving is my preferred method of swarm control. It is very cheap on equipment, easy and very, very versatile! I'd personally only add a single queen-cell to each of the nucs btw. There are many comments here about how bad this guy is.... There is a mass of nonsense about bee keeping floating around, always has been (pre internet), usually spread by well meaning 'new' bee keepers who are eager to tell everyone about their hobby - that's great, providing they are open to changing ideas and views as they learn. Adding a few, " I believe " or " I think" warns the reader that there maybe other explanations. It's my experience that the worse offenders, shall we call them the Top Bar Brigade, are invariably close minded and their knowledge is usually pitiful. In my opinion, very few bee keepers know how to open a hive, let alone how to behave around one, so I can be pretty critical! So be gentle, and remember that the bees don't always read the manual either. Swarm cells and supercedure cells can occur anywhere, it's a rule of thumb. I've found queen cells in the oddest locations. My father showed me a rapid feeder just the other day with a Q-cell in the tube, none in the main hive! You may even find them above a queen excluder (queen below!). I should add that I've kept bees for 50+years and I'm always learning! Keep up the good work! Bee keeping is a personal hobby enjoy it your way.

[@thatonedog819]

Adrian W anyone in any hobby should always keep learning! No matter how long they've been in it.

[@Crlpope]

When you split a hive did you ever have trouble with the worker bees returning to the mother hive?

[@hummingbird9640]

Interesting to see the "experts" below commenting on the flaws of a video and not posting ANYTHING of their own! Yes anyone can make a KZbin video, isn't that a good thing? Thanks for all the information.

[@aceman4564564]

While I agree that some of the people below are quite rude in what they are saying, they do have a point, beekeeping is not just something to walk into, you have to know what the hive is doing and why, Beekeeping means taking the live of several thousand insects lives into your hands, you give them a safe home, choice spots for foraging, and other advantages that they would not have in the wild, several people think that they can read one book, get a general idea about the hobby, and dive in head first, I studied with an eighty-seven year old beekeeper for a year-and-a-half before I even bought equipment, read twenty separate books on the topic, and watched hours of videos on you tube, and also, some of these beekeepers don't have time to work a video camera in the yard, I work forty hives every time I light my smoker, and I definitely do not have time to fumble with a camera. I know not everyone wants to spend the time that I did, and that is understandable, but at least know more about the hobby than this person, for example, that one frame, at 1:30, should be scourged of that wax, it looks old and distorted and in need of a good cleaning, the amount of drone comb shows that wax moths have got at it and that the comb may harbor diseases such as AFB, EFB, or Chalk-brood, all of which can be fatal to a hive if not dealt with, so in essence, I do agree that some of the experts should keep their mouths washed, but they do have valid points, people should know the hive, even the slightest misinformation shows that he has not studied as much as he should have, and does not fully understand the hive, thank you for your time.

[@beebob1279]

Hummingbird. The problem is that people who don't know what they're talking about make videos on youtube. Often times I find some very good information on beekeeping. This video is a mess. These two don't have a clue and obviously haven't been around a bee hive for long. And, you're right. I don't put things on youtube. But, I've been asked to do bee videos. I was also asked to do a national blog on beekeeping by a national paper a couple of years ago. I didn't do that because they wanted it done for free. Why would I do a video for free. Guys like the ones in this video are trying to show off that they keep bees, but don't really know what they're doing, yet. If they read, take classes, go to club meetings, I think they'll be fine. There you go. My response.

[@slinger777]

Hummingbird we are not talking about flaws here almost every thing this guy is doing is wrong and will not work ok and will lead to hive failure

[@hummingbird9640]

slinger777 Again, I ask the experts to show us how its done. Picking on a video and saying "its all wrong" is not giving expert advice and NOT going to encourage any beekeeper. Again I don't claim to be an expert beekeeper but I bet that this guys hive is doing just fine a year after mislabeling cells and I am pretty sure the bees did not care what he called them! At very lease this guy is trying to share his knowledge (as little or as much as it might be), which might inspire others to read more about beekeeping and critically think about the subject.

[@aceman4564564]

Hummingbird Again, I would remind you that cameras are not easy to work in the bee yard, when you are surrounded by 40+ hive the last thing you want to do is have to worry about a camera. And I do have to agree that the bees are probably fine, mislabeling doesn't hurt the bees, but mistakes like that show that he might not know other things that are important to hive health, such as how to ID inbreeding, a "slow queen" or even a drone laying queen, also, where are your videos on beekeeping? You criticize our inability to post videos but I haven't seen any from you, I would like to see how much you know about beekeeping, good sir.

[@BIGALTX]

Man... it's amazing how fast spring is coming for you. You're just 200 miles south of me and my peach trees are just now getting bud swell... no leaves yet. Maybe I need to check my bees in about a week or 2 for swarming signs. I have several swarm traps out now, just in case. Your beehives rock!

[@flamedrag18]

they do have to mate, but they'll only do that once they come out and by that time the workers are out and about, once they leave, they find their bearings and go find a mate, then they come back to their hive(the new hive, the only home they've known) and start pumping out eggs. the queen does something a lot like the workers when they leave to find flowers, the queen marks her bearing to landmarks and sets off and finds her way back with those landmarks.

[@Brewmaster721]

New drinking game video, keyword “supersedure cells” Enjoyed video, I am learning all I can right now. Keep it up!!

[@LDSPrepper]

I live in a developed community by a forest. I imagine the bees get what they can when they can. Each harvest is different in color and taste.

[@honeybeesinjapan]

Very nice. My bees made it through winter and now we are preparing for the my first honey flow which is cherry blossom honey. It is fantastic honey. Can't wait!

[@kiehljoseph]

you don't care to look for the queen?

[@TuftsSummer]

The cells are not supercedure cells but swarm cells. Swarms cells are along the bottom of the frames and are the way the have makes queens to replace the queen that leaves when the hive swarms.. Supercedure cells are queen cells that the workers make in order to replace a faulty queen and are not typically positioned along the bottom of the frames.

[@SoMDBeekeeper]

Nicely done! Your excitement is contagious and it highlights the pure joy of beekeeping.

[@TomBoomsheeva]

swarm cells, not supercedure.

[@rapolasinda8048]

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[@LDSPrepper]

Feed, feed, feed. Give them sugar water and two things will happen. The hive will start storing honey thus taking up cells and the queen will start laying lots of eggs thus taking up cells. They will then want to swarm. Look for queen cells. As soon as you see them take 1/2 of the frames out, including the ones with queen cells and put them in a new hive. Replace the empty spots in the original hive with empty frames with foundation. This will stop the swarm but make a new hive.

[@kazbluesky]

I keep coming back to your channel because you cover such useful things, thanks, very interesting.

[@1952Jeep]

I get my two packages Monday!!! The only things I bought were the frames, excluder's, and inner covers. Well, I bought the bee packages too, but next year I hope to be doing this!! Thanks for the vid!

[@melanieklarofficial]

Something I learned about plastic frames the hard way- you have to use all plastic or none. I checkerboarded plastic frames in with my regular wooden and wax foundation frames and after months, they did absolutely nothing on the plastic frames.

[@Koiboy70]

I liked this video, as I didn't know how to split a hive. BUT, if it's so cold, it's a bad idea to open the hive - can chill the brood. Also, they mentioned "staining" the hive - don't recommend feeding staining dyes and chemicals to bees like that... But, we all make mistakes when we start out, and lord knows, I've made plenty! Thanks for posting. Jason

[@nbond1986]

Just an observation: Rusty on honeybeesuite refers to "checkerboarding" as alternating empty frames in the HONEY SUPER. What you are doing in this video, Rusty would refer to as "opening the brood"

[@426superbee4]

Thanks for your video's! There never enough video's on bee keeping and bee behavior!

[@Jack-ng1su]

Supercedure, supercedure, supercedure! Damn, he sure likes to say "SUPERCEDURE" !!!!!!!!!!

[@Samgtho]

Wow they are beautiful hive box's!

[@Lord_Shadowz]

I have a question. Why do you use plastic frames? Don’t the bees make their own wax? I would imagine the honey would taste better in natural wax than plastic. Or am I completely wrong?

[@emberlylucas4399]

William J Greklek III plastic doesn’t effect the taste...I’m sure it’s food grade anyways. U can’t get cut comb off plastic fountain but u can decap it and spin it out leaving a lot of the wax remaining for the bees so they don’t have to draw everything back out again...I’m nfs if u can or can’t do that with wax foundation but even if you could i know it wouldn’t hold up to the extracting process long were plastic can be used indefinitely...after a few years scrape them completely down and recoat them and your good to go...wax foundation u have to buy all new or invest a lot of money in order to do your own...I myself use foundationless and plastic foundation deeps for brood and plastic medium foundation for supers. Now we did buy some used equipment that came with some wired wax foundation and I swear I might be crazy but all year I’ve told my father they build out the foundationless frames faster than the plastic foundation...and I’m not just saying that cause I want to go all foundationless in the brood...I’ve actually noticed it in several hives...they will work the plastic and don’t skip it but draw out from scratch the foundationless frame on the other side faster than they draw out the plastic right by their brood...but I swear I think they drew those wax foundation frames out faster than the plastic...now not saying we had a problem getting them to draw them out...we bought double coated then recoated them ourselves so they did work them...just seemed to take longer to draw out imo. Would like to do an experiment next year where I use half plastic and half wax and see which ones they pull out faster or if there’s a noticeable diff side by side or if it’s just in my head...lol but yeah to answer your question I don’t think the plastic effects the honey at all..I’m sure their made out of food grade plastic like everything else in honey harvesting...stainless or food grade plastic.

[@cybrk1]

Love the hive covers on your hives. Sweeeet!!

[@Tom6093]

Queen bees looks at the 3 new frames. " We are swarming anyway, just for spite "

[@TomBrueggen]

You're killing me! Swarm cells, swarm cells, swarm cells! That's all I could think the whole time. Congrats anyway, job well done. I suppose what you call the cell is not as important as knowing why it exists.

[@dahliasmama77]

Very cool and interesting! Do you get wildflower or clover blossum honey?

[@beebob1279]

When the colony produces queen cells on the bottom of a frame they are actually swarm cells. You need to remove the queen and reduce the number of swarm cells for the parent colony. It's simple. Just do what you're doing but move the queen to the other box. Leave plenty of bees so the queen cells are finished well. I would like you tube to screen what is demonstrated in the videos so that people aren't misinformed. How long have you been keeping bees? Apparently, you need more time.

[@reeram]

Where did you get your hives? They are beautiful! (I'm going to get some hives soon is why I'm asking )

[@Accuracy1st]

Question: just because you take the queen cells out and put them in a new hive, don't they still have to mate? Don't they do that in flight? If so, what makes them come back to the new hive?

[@paganpoetprophet6441]

could you expound ; explain more on the supercedure ; or swarm cells ; i like the video i am novice just building up my hives and supplies for spring queen due to be mailed to me in spring

[@jedijerry1]

Swarm cells will be near the bottom of the frames. They do this because of overcrowding in the hive. Supersedure cells are usually in the middle/towards the top of the frame. These are queen cells made because something is wrong with their existing queen and she needs to be replaced

[@adrianw2972]

Supersedure cells tend to be built were the eggs were laid and cells around them torn down to make space, since speed is of the essence. A (good) queen can only be produced from a day old larvae (4th day), since it must be fed royal jelly exclusively for epigenetics to be effective. Although swarm cells tend to be at the bottom of the frame (with time to build queen cups and select eggs) They can and do occur at any location on the brood frame (and elsewhere!). On purchased queens. Try to breed your own. It's fun, satisfying, cheaper, and you are not bringing unknown genetics or disease into your area. this is especially true if you like the temperament of your colonies.

[@danzak44]

I love your bee videos! I learn so much. Thanks!

[@lostgriz]

What kind of hives were the new ones? They look very nice.

[@bza069]

that frame at 3:25 is in distress... looks like queenless problem and there are laying workers making tons of drone cells... You probably want to confirm you have a queen or requeen

[@androidbakery]

The hives with the copper top look great. Where can I pick some up and how much?

[@jetskijay1955]

Important question! how often do you inspect the hives?

[@MattWhitmore]

aren't supersedure cells found in the center of the frames in order to replace a queen that is dying?

[@kiehljoseph]

i agree....lots of bad info......

[@gabitzu50]

hi i love see you wait for the bee to up. today i bay my first 3 family. sory for my englis.respect

[@TheJonesn]

where did you get these 8 frame hives. I like the hive tops as well.

[@BackyardPhenomena]

Hey LDS prepper, I have two hives, I want to split each, How do I get them to create the swarm cells? Any help would be great, thanks!

[@407mil]

what do drones do?

[@brucewayne-cave]

Beautiful Hives

[@crisr858]

how much does the be hive cost .but the one that your nephew has?

[@essex0chris]

What times during the year can you do this? Presumably it's too late now at the end of August?

[@venomsailor]

Are you only using the med supers that Brushy Mtn makes?

[@badams48]

Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing.

[@thebrooklynprepper]

i need to call you one day about this bee stuff

[@melanieklarofficial]

What kind of bees do you have? Carniolan? They are so much gentler than mine! They aren't harrassing you at all.

[@oldtiedyeman]

I came her because at a glance I thought this was from LSD prepper.

[@SgtSustainability]

Awesome video. I always wanted to have a beehive.

[@lenoretalon9958]

Swarm cells. Or crack queens as I call them. Supercedure cells are the queen of queens.

[@unitedstatesdale]

Excellent Job !

[@UniversalDirt]

Did the nucs survive?

[@Warpedsanity]

swarm cells not supersedure cells. if you split a hive with some eggs and brood. the queenless bees will make queen cells and rase a new queen.

[@mikeam7750]

Is mike your nephew or cousin-in-law? in your harvest video he was a cousin-in-law.

[@dsstroyer]

what stain did you use?

[@andycoombes]

Yup. They're swarm cells - not supersedure cells.

[@LDSPrepper]

Thank you.

[@ДимуляДимочка]

hi! What is the type of your hives? And what size frames do u use?

[@MassDynamic]

the girl doesn't look 2 excited.

[@jpthedelawarebeeman6239]

The other mistake you say is having empty foundation doesn't tell the queen theres more room to lay in fact she can't lay without drawn out foundation

[@tazno1]

super sidsure cells?

[@Megahs2010]

Great video

[@1958trickyricky]

how long will a queen live and what would be her value

[@adrianw2972]

If memory serves, about seven years! However, most bee keepers keep them for little more than three, since their egg laying sharply diminishes. Often the bees will supersede if laying diminishes.

[@majesticroofingllc927]

You always find the queen what you did it is wrong.

[@MrDavidmarkarian]

Where do you buy you're bee hives at?

[@HAntimatterBrandon]

is your split successful ??

[@jannassary]

VERY GOOD, BUT A Q. SUPER.CELLS ARE USUALLY AT THE TOP OR AROUND THE CENTRE SWARM CELLS ARE AT THE BOTTOM! THIS IS WHAT I KNOW. THNK YOU 4THE UPLOAD AND VERY KIND OF YOU TO SHARE SOME BEEZZ AS PPL ONLY KNOW HOW SELL RATHER THAN SHARE! =)

[@SlimJared]

Makes my skin crawl.

[@stefanlemko]

those were not superceedure cells on the bottom...drone cells, not queen at 1:31

[@hoplite46]

I heard sugar water and honey in a bait hive attracts ants

[@paulpellicci]

super....

[@fionmor4893]

I noticed one of those frames you said had queen cells on it were actually drone cells.... and you may have moved the queen into a box with queen cells and not looked for your queen??? lame info

[@kiehljoseph]

you can't get all your info from youtube........

[@fourdegreesc]

Good video. Thanks for helping everyone. But the girl doesn't look all that excited about the bees or sitting in the cold! :)

[@poison03nae]

Love your videos ty

[@slinger777]

lots of bad info here

[@Louisianalimits]

+D Wahrenburg I think y'all are both wrong because his cousin IS just starting it seams and beginners are always exited if they truly love what they are about to do. I don't know if you are a beekeeper or not but I am and for five years now and when I started i was like that to and my first hive I went look at it for hours and hours and days upon days. Thank you and think before you criticize people.

[@Louisianalimits]

+D Wahrenburg I understand your point but even knew parents don't know everything about having children and taking care of them it's a process that you learn as you go on.as a parent has another child they know more things about children from their past mistakes it's the same thing with beekeepers their first Hive they don't know really a lot about bees but as they go on he or she learn more and more and for their second hive it will be better and then as he goes on and on he'll become very well in the field of beekeeping.

[@kiehljoseph]

plastic?

[@ThebeemanCoUkScotland]

Hi there not supercedure cells There swarm cells. You need to know the difference

[@devonh9011]

What exactly are supercedure cells?

[@beebob1279]

Don't worry about it. These guys have it all wrong. The cells they are looking at are swarm cells. Watch out for people on youtube. These two are not knowledgeable about beekeeping if they can't tell the difference between a supercedure cell and a swarm cell. To answer your question, a supercedure cell is made when a queen is failing or has died. The hive will produce a queen (usually in the middle of the frame). Swarm cells are made when the hive is so congested that the hive naturally splits and the old queen flies off with the worker bees. Swarm cells are usually made on the bottom of the frame or on the sides. The swarm cell will emerge and the hive continues to survive. There are enough bees in the hive to care for the new queen. If a hive swarms in my area in spring we won't harvest honey for that season. The colony spends all its energy to rebuild and prepare for winter survival.

[@lynnettamiller]

Bee Bob Not only is he misnaming swarm cells, but at 1:30 he shows a bunch of drone comb and calls those supercedure cells as well. I had to stop watching at that point.

[@aceman4564564]

I stopped watching when I heard that they were not watching for the queen, he acts so nonchalant about losing a queen, I mean, if I lost a queen I would be cradling that hive, he acts like the queen is something that you can just lose and be OK with, last year i lost 20 colonies to late swarms because the swarms died, then the new queens hatched, but could not mate, it's sad when beekeepers don't understand a queens importance.

[@roberthampton9581]

Lynnetta Miller there were 4 queeen cells along with the drone freeze it and look closer

[@ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΑΠΑΠΟΥΤΣΗ-β1β]

very beautyfull hives!!!!! i am gona do the same. tnks

[@keepskeeps222]

Shame you have such nice boxes but using plastic....

[@Niko-ri4rs]

Keeps Keeps plastic is better

[@stefanivanov8408]

thanks for info :)

[@flamedrag18]

yes, but it's best to wait for swarm queens to be made, or else you risk having to depend on inferior emergency queens to lead your hive, it's like buying a clunker now instead of being patient and getting a sports car later.....

[@bossphan8887]

nice

[@daphneyglass323]

Those are drone cells

[@airwolf61970]

Make sure you don't give him the queen

[@LDSPrepper]

I PM'd you my phone number. Give me a call when you have questions.

[@benpadelski4321]

Swarm cells***

[@DrViktorFursov]

Very nice Video! :)

[@berthayellowfinch5471]

Oh my.

[@charbeekoenen6379]

holy cow is there alot of misinformation going on here... ouch. I know they are all well meaning.. but this info is really not good... heck they don't even know the difference tween drone cells, swarm cells and supercedure cells. Keep learning... its good to share, but care to share from a position of knowledge... misinformation, no matter how well-meaning... is not a service. Bee Well :-)

[@carterhassel9325]

I hate bees they freek me out