TIPS: Late summer/fall SPLITS of your bee hive

[@christianshannon3943]

I enjoy watching your videos. In Virginia we are socked in with high humidity which makes things tough . Next year I will be trying my hand at grafting and raising a handful of queens. The bees I have are gentle and very hygienic. We are going into fall with plenty of wet ground. We’ve had over six inches of rain in the last two weeks . Goldenrod is blooming very good this year along with sunflowers my neighbors planted . This coming weekend I will be doing my monthly inspections. Yes I only inspect the brood nest once a month . Have mercy I’m 57 and this ole body can’t take the humidity. Take care my west coast friend!

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Christian, thanks for watching! High humidity is not fun🥵 You keep at it my man, 57 and going strong.💪 That's awesome 👏 Take care Christian🤙

[@nagendraghimire7851]

Good to see your confidence. Thanks for sharing.

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Thank you Nagendra👍

[@christinesittner8712]

I really enjoyed that video! I’ve heard you talk about splits and now I know what they are! And catching on to some of your other beekeeper lingo!😎

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Thanks for watching Christine, glad you're learning the lingo 🐝 ❤🙌

[@dannycrain3485]

Nice video thanks

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Danny, thank you🙌

[@JakeBeesos]

Thanks for sharing. How long can the virgins stay locked up before she has to mate?

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

We have them caged for no longer than 72hrs. But, we prefer to introduce them a soon as possible so that she gets oriented with her new colony before her mating flight (which typically happens 7-14 days after hatching).

[@taddrienstra7247]

Since the box with the VQ will have no new bees for 5 weeks, why did you put the 3rd box with old queen and extra bees in the new location? Was that to account for drift sort of splitting the two moved boxes, some will stay with Q, and some will drift back? Or was it more just about stores?

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Great question! It was more about stores for the mated queen so she can keep rolling layout. I expect the virgin box to pick up at least 2 frames of drift from the queen right hive that I moved.

[@taddrienstra7247]

@@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper do you expect the vq part to catch up by winter or in mid spring?

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Normally it's a small gamble just to be able produce a decent single hive body. In this case she was able to produce well through the winter enough to begin working a second hive body just before almond pollination as a mid grade hive. We were fortunate it was a warm winter and the queen never really shut down.

[@woodlandharvesthoneycompanyllc]

Hosa you said you could release the virgin queens because they don't have pheramones. Do you have trouble with the bees making queen cells while the new queen is going on her mating flight

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

We have never had any issues, the virgin queen typically handles and queen cells that may get developed

[@woodlandharvesthoneycompanyllc]

@@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper Thank you. Good to know information.

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

@@woodlandharvesthoneycompanyllc you are welcome

[@calvinkalmon6746]

You took the cell cup out of the cage, does that mean you let her emerge directly into the cage? If so, was that in an incubator or in a colony?

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Great question Calvin, I had them in an incubator prior to this nuc box. I placed them in a California mini cage in case they hatched.

[@calvinkalmon6746]

@@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper If they didn't emerge yet would you still put the cage with the Queen cell In the nucleus and let it emerge in the cage?

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

No, when placing cells in regular hive bodies I place them as I would a nucleus. The one thing that would be different from a hive body to a nuc would be that I prefer to place it in the heart of the existing brood or in the cluster of bees(jam the base of the cup into the wax, cell facing down)

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Great follow up question my man!👍

[@herbertjacobs8422]

You missed her. She was on the 3rd frame of the bottom box

[@honeybeebobbyhoward6326]

Are there drones

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Great question. There was drones throughout the hives in this yard. Very important to us to assess the drone stock. This year has been a little different here in our area. The lack of nectar to forage has made the bees to begin kicking drones out sooner. We do try our best to keep them well fed so that we can maximize drone production