How to Split a Honeybee Colony in a Layens Horizontal Hive

Splitting a honeybee colony can reduce swarming and is a way to expand an apiary. In this video I demonstrate how a split can be done in a Layens Horizontal Hive, keeping both colonies in the same hive. Note: This is not necessarily a permanent solution; eventually one colony will need to be moved for space. But this method allows the colonies to divide the foragers while they are building back up after the split.
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#honeybee #beekeeping #beekeeper #beehive #layenshive #horizontalhive
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:54 - Opening the Hive and Moving Half the Frames
02:58 - Advice for Users of Layens Frames
03:30 - Finding the Queen
04:13 - Moving the Other Half
06:14 - Hunt for the Queen (Again)
08:30 - Marking the Queen
09:22 - Closing the Hive
10:15 - Recap & About Keeping the Colonies Separate
11:15 - Closing

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

One important thing I left off of the end of this video: I use a thin piece of plywood, with screened vents, as an inner cover over the open area between the colonies. This keeps the bees from going over the middle divider. An alternate method of keeping the bees from crossing between colonies is to use a full-length partition (no gap at the bottom) on one of the colonies. However it's done, there should be some method of preventing the bees from crossing between colonies inside of the hive.

[@user-yf7ob7ls5r]

How did this split winter

[@maniagokm3186]

Just found this one vs the other one where I asked about the in-box split qu. Moving them to the center first makes sense. Guess I'll just have to give this a try. Thanks

[@kensomerville]

Sweet and smooth walk away split my friend, I think I would have only done one thing different, I think I would have added then new frames one on each end of the old frames. But I think small things like that may be more of a personal preference then something that would bother the bees. lol Great work and I will be waiting to see the results. Thank you for sharing your journey it is helping me with mine, and each new video you do, your helping many people now and in the future. :))))

[@beebob1279]

I just subscribed. I’m looking to leave doing Langstroth because the boxes are getting too heavy for this old body. I’m looking forward to your videos and seeing how you manage the colonies.

[@ThomasKMills]

How nice not having to remove honey supers and brood boxes to do inspections and splits. Can you tell me how warm the nights need to be before making splits, thanks for the great videos

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

My preference is over 50⁰F (10C) but I don't live or die by that. Below that the bees might form a cluster, and with their numbers reduced due to the split they may have to abandon brood, resulting in chilled brood. The insulated hives and ability to condense the colony's space down to only what's needed can help mitigate that, though.

[@artlaflam]

Awesome .... Can you do a video (close up ) of how to pick up a queen the best way .... LOVE those videos...

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

That's a good idea. When I make splits and mark queens this coming Spring I might try to capture that.

[@KoiKicks]

Great frames of brood. I've currently only got my first colony that got through Winter great and considering a split. Doing my first inspection at the weekend. Now do I split or leave my first colony to grow and gain experience through a whole season first? Dilemma!

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

If you only have one colony and they're strong, then I'd split to grow your apiary.

[@cyclist20]

Do you always put new foundation at the center of the hive or do you ever use drawn comb? Great video. So little about management of a horizontal hive in a practical sense. enjoy the videos a lot.

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

To be honest, it sometimes depends on what's available. If I have foundation to be drawn out I like to give that to the bees to build. But if I'm adding frames to the brood area I'd rather use drawn comb. This year the bees are building so fast it doesn't really seem to matter. I'm having trouble keeping up!

[@davidpatillo7404]

Very good videos. Well laid out and well presented. I put out my first bait hive yesterday so will see what happens. I what part of Missouri do you live? I am in South Central in Howell county.

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

Thank you for your kind words! I have no background in video production (but am learning) so I appreciate the encouragement. In Howell County you're right in Dr. Leo Sharashkin's stomping ground. If you haven't attended his seminar in Cabool I highly recommend it. When I went I stayed in West Plains and attended the HOBA bluegrass festival in the evenings. It was a good opportunity and good timing - I'm in St Louis County so otherwise wouldn't normally make it down. Good luck with your swarm trapping!

[@Dimitri.Angelopoulos]

I have a question. How come the bees from the colony that doesn't have a queen, don't move to the colony that has the queen?

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

Inside the hive I use a middle divider board with a cover on top (which I failed to show in this video) to keep complete separation between the colonies. Outside of the hive it may seem reasonable to assume that most or all of the foragers would be drawn to the queen right side, but that didn't seem to be the case.

[@Dimitri.Angelopoulos]

@@SuburbanSodbuster thanks. This following spring I'll start keeping bees the natural way with Layens hives in Wisconsin and I really like your very informative and helpful videos. Keep up the good work

[@curly-hairedcountrygal1275]

What requirements would you say are necessary to make a split? How many frames of brood/nectar?

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

As a rule, I like to split with 2 frames of brood, at least one of which has eggs (not as critical if a queen is being added) and 1 frame of honey & pollen. It is technically possible to create a split with 1 full frame that contains honey, pollen, brood from eggs to capped, and enough nurse bees to cover the frame, plus 1 additional empty frame. That's how I started the colony (last year) that was split in this video.

[@maggiewatte7911]

I need to split this coming Saturday. Is it too late to move frame s to center as you did in previous video with just short a week before split? At what point do you move split to another hive? I have a layens I can move split to now , when I make the split.

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

A week should be enough time for the bees to get oriented to the middle entrance. But if you can find the queen and you have a hive available then I'd just go ahead and move the queen and some resources to the other hive from the start. Even if you can't find the queen you could go ahead and split to the other hive, giving both sides young brood and resources, but if the original hive still has the queen and foragers they might be prone to swarm and the moved colony will be at a disadvantage.

[@longarmsupplies]

Would you do this again? I'm new to your channel and love it! My bees came through the winter great this year and I only have one layens hive right now, a 20 frame. I'd love to try out this method this year so they don't swarm. I'm in Alberta, we're having a slow to warm up spring but I saw the very first(and very sparse) pollen coming in yesterday. Getting ready for the big burst...I saw that the queen is backfilling the empty brood cells already! I've been feeding wheat germ/brewers yeast outside the hives and pollen patties inside the hives...Sugar syrup is available too. My hives survived but were totally empty this spring, except for the layens hive...it has lots of honey.

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

Yes, definitely! I just posted a video about the splits I did this year (with updates to come). I didn't follow the exact same method, only because I didn't start early enough with moving the frames to the middle. But as long as the colonies have the resources they need it works out. I should mention that having >1 colony in a 20 frame hive is not a permanent solution; eventually one will need to be moved out. But I think the multiple entrances provide a good platform for splitting existing colonies. The video I mentioned is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpjZY4Kca5V1nrM

[@longarmsupplies]

@@SuburbanSodbuster Thanks again for the advice. I just moved them to the middle. I'm noticing that they are starting on drone production and yesterday was the first day I they were bringing in real pollen! I'm not sure what I'll do since that colony is already taking up 12 frames in the hive(and I addded a couple more). There's LOTS of empty space in there for the queen to lay, I spotted her on a new frame wandering around looking for space to lay. Three frames are full with every age of brood...what a wonderful queen! Whew! What a year it's going to be. I dug in to the langstroth hive I hadn't gone deep in yet this year...oh my, the bees cover the frames in both brood boxes but the frames are empty and ready for queen to lay in ...she's got a good start and I'm sure thankful I got the feed into them early.

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

That sounds like a great queen and a good opportunity for the split. Each side should have a good start for the year. I almost suggested a three way split, but you'd have to decide if your goal is to grow your apiary or let them get started on honey production.

[@lexwritesthings]

I'm curious, did you keep the two colonies in there all season or did you eventually move them to separate hives? How did that go?

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

No, this is just a way of getting the new colony started and can buy some time until another hive is available. But, as long as the colonies are strong and the nectar flow is good they will outgrow the space quickly and one will need to be moved out. Depending on location, another hive can be put next to the original and one colony moved into the adjacent end of the new hive. Then the new entrance will be easy for the foragers to find. Or one colony can be moved into a small box (nuc/swarm trap) to be transported to a hive somewhere else. If the new hive is close by then the colony will lose foragers unless the colony can be moved a few miles away for a week or so to reorient. But if a colony is strong then they can sacrifice some foragers for a short time, and those foragers that return to the original location will likely end up going to the colony in the opposite end of the original hive.

[@lexwritesthings]

@@SuburbanSodbuster thank you! That's so helpful. I started working a Layens for the first time recently (my other hives are Warre) and now I kind of wish all my hives were Layens. I love the ease of horizontal management, and the bees seem to appreciate it too. I've gained so much from seeing your videos - books are great, but seeing the work in action makes a huge difference.

[@charlesray1469]

I run layens hives as well. I plan on splitting this way. My question is what keeps the bees from going over the top of the center divider board to the other side?

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

I realized, as I was editing this, that I left that part out. I have a board with screened vents that I lay over the middle - an inner cover, I guess you could say - that keeps the bees from going over the middle divider.

[@Bigcountryprojects]

@@SuburbanSodbuster ok, that all makes sense.

[@jphomebrew]

Great tip on sliding the frames down. When there is any gap between frames my bees try to get through them and I end up squishing them which I hate

[@curly-hairedcountrygal1275]

Is there a follow up to this video?

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

There's this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/favUkImIiJeoZqs

[@beverlyhughes8358]

Question. Colony just swarmed a few days ago. Left behind are 14 frames loaded with plenty of bees, brood, honey, and about 10 queen cells. Could I split these 14 frames w/divider board and put half of the queen cell frames on either end to get two colonies going? What would happen? I'm one year into beekeeping, in novice mode. Thanks for this video!

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

As long as the queen cells are capped (or about to be) you absolutely could do that, and I think it's a great idea, but your window to do so is short. Once the first virgin queen emerges she will go around and kill the other rivals before going on her mating flight.

[@beverlyhughes8358]

@@SuburbanSodbuster Thanks for your reply! I will check and see. As of 3 days ago, they were all still closed.

[@jay90374]

@@beverlyhughes8358 did it work?

[@beverlyhughes8358]

​@@jay90374 I think it would've worked! They actually swarmed again in that short window of time, settling in a nearby bush, and another keeper came and collected (both). In the end I decided against it because I'm in an urban area and don't have space for two colonies and really didn't need to after the second swarm. The remaining bees raised a queen and the hive is going strong.

[@jay90374]

@@beverlyhughes8358 👍 Thanks

[@curly-hairedcountrygal1275]

I am a little confused- I guess I thought brood and eggs were synonymous. When you say eggs, are those brood that haven't been capped yet? Thanks!!

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

Eggs, Larvae and Pupae are all stages of brood. But to make a queen the bees must start with Larvae < 3 days old; eggs are even better (gives more time). The reason for this is that, after the eggs hatch, all Larvae are fed royal jelly for the first 3 days. After that only queen larvae is fed royal jelly (exclusively), while other larvae is fed bee bread. So in mentioning brood and eggs separately, I'm just making a differentiation between what brood bees can use to make a queen, and what they can't.

[@curly-hairedcountrygal1275]

@@SuburbanSodbuster Very helpful, thanks!

[@ronwilson330]

Good video… why did you decide to split? I was expecting to see more frames of brood before splitting that one.

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

I split my 3 strongest colonies early this year to give the new colonies a head start on rearing a queen. That worked out well - the colonies from this split are now in separate hives and both building strong. In 2 of 3 cases the new colonies started strong and built fast, and the source colony recovered quickly The third case is doing okay; the new colony is just slower to build.

[@ronwilson330]

@@SuburbanSodbuster thanks.. just beginning to work with Layens… did/are you feeding your splits?

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

I did not feed this in-hive split, but for other splits I fed the colony moving to a new location and briefly losing their foragers. But I didn't feed much - about 1 1/2 quarts of sugar syrup (1 frame feeder) just to bridge the gap.

[@ronwilson330]

@@SuburbanSodbuster k… thanks for the replies.

[@jphomebrew]

I left a gap under the divider board and the bees would come out and explore by the hundreds. Then it became a real pain to even get the lid closed

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

Mine do the same thing. I slide the lid on, or set it on diagonally and rotate it to push bees off of the edges, then ease it down to give any remaining bees a chance to get out of the way. Sometimes some still get caught, but it helps to reduce casualties.

[@wendygrant2735]

I guess the foragers will choose the side where their queen lives. The worker bees on the other side will send new foragers in the wild for resources and inside they will raise a new queen. My guess.

[@SuburbanSodbuster]

That is a reasonable guess. But my observation after the split is the opposite: the side without the queen got most (not all) of the foragers. One observation isn't proof, of course, but it may fall somewhat to chance and bees following where the crowd happens to go.

[@wendygrant2735]

@@SuburbanSodbuster Something new learned. Thanks.

[@kensomerville]

I think there may be a difference if a hive is moved to a new box, by using the same box, the bee's with the queen did not feel the need to use there nasonov gland to call the bee's home, so I would think it came down to the instinct, of follow the leader, just consider how the waggle dance communicate were a source of food is, it is a follow the leader system. The more of the bees that went left, attracted more to go in that direction. But that my friends is just a theory, I don't think I have came across anyone talking about it, at least not that I can remember at the moment. :))