Splitting Elizabeth

July 13, 2011

So this is the adventure of splitting a beehive to make sure it doesn't swarm.  After many e-mails with Rich and much reading about splitting beehives in the many books I now own about bees, I have decided that splitting is the way to go.

This involves moving some of the brood from the donor hive (Queen Elizabeth) into a small hive, making sure that Her Majesty stays with the donor hive.  This means you have to find her!  This also means you need another hive.  Happily Bill is handy and whipped me up a bottom and top for one of my extra supers that I have.  I went into Elizabeth hoping like mad that I would actually find her.  I looked at every frame methodically one by one, checking for health and of course, her. I saw lots of bees but no sign of the queen.  I decided not to panic and to split regardless since I have proven how terrible I am at finding her.  I made sure she wasn't on any of the frames of brood that I was moving to make sure she didn't go into the new hive.  If you are wondering what this move will do; it's to trick both hives into working hard and thinking that there is not reason to swarm after all, particularly the queen.  Losing half her brood will trigger egg laying activity and she will stop dreaming about new digs.  I moved the brood frames with their nurse workers and a bunch of honey frames and closed the hive up.

I added a few empty frames into Queen Elizabeth and closed her up as well.  Now I just cross my fingers for 5-7 days before putting them all back together. And don't they look sweet all in a row?

Queen Elizabeth with split beside her

July 17, 2011

Hot, hot, hot and 46% humidity.  A perfect day to give Elizabeth back her brood...perfect for the bees but extremely uncomfortable for the beekeeper who still wears the full gear.  I waited for the time when the most foragers would be out gathering pollen and nectar.  While I waited, I set up a little pond with a solar fountain so that wouldn't have to fill the bird bath 4 times a day.  That's a fine activity during holidays but I'm back to work and the sun will still be shining down on us.  No rain for 3 weeks is tough on everything, including the bees.  So now the oh, so pampered bees have a watering hole fit for a...well...queen. (sorry)

I have to mention at this time that yours truly  has become quite the expert at lighting the smoker....what I still need to perfect is keeping it going while I'm working and giving it enough fuel to last through working 2 hives.  However do the beekeepers with 100 hives do it?  With the smoker going I opened Elizabeth to look for Her Majesty again to see if she is laying and has forgotten about her silly idea of heading out into the blue yonder.  If she is and I can, I will give back the brood and nurses I took away.  

She is making a fair bit of honey, but I was not interested in that and took of the top super to see if anything had happened in the empty frames.  Lots of wax is being built no egg laying so I took off that super as well.  So into the bottom box, the brood chamber I went.  I get very nervous when I go into this box since it feels very vulnerable and is so very full of bees.  Again, I very methodically started going through the frames to find Her.  I must admit to a certain trepidation since I haven't laid eyes on her since back in June and I didn't know what shape she was in.  Frame by frame I went.  I got to the second last frame and felt my heart sinking.  I knew the outside frame would be only honey with no brood so it was this frame or bust.  Bingo!  There she was in all her glory, looking quite fat and content with her attendants around her.  I was so happy to see her.  Here she is for you to check out...nice and close.

Queen Elizabeth I...you can find her without my help!

I closed Elizabeth up and proceeded to add the split colony.  It will be glad to be back since it has been living without a queen for 5 days.  The nurses will not leave the brood for any reason.  They will guard and feed it to the death apparently.  Eventually the little colony would dwindle without eggs being laid but it can exist for about a month without her.  To add the split I put a sheet of newspaper with slits in it over the main colony and then placed the split hive on top of that.  This is so that the bees will integrate slowly and avoid any fighting between the two halves.  The bees will peel away the newspaper and fly away with the bits to clean up the hive.  I didn't give Elizabeth another honey super to work on since she isn't ready yet.  Closed her up and thought I would check on Hippolyta while I was at it.

Newspaper between main colony and split colony.

Hippolyta's honey production has been incredible but when I opened her up it wasn't all that much.  I imagine that the lack of rain is affecting the nectar production of the flowers around here.  What is blooming right now?  Thyme, which they love, some sage still, oregano, basil, yellow clover on the tracks, yarrow and perennial sweet pea.  My day lilies are starting but I have never seen bees there and they have shown no interest whatsoever in the amazing stand of bee balm I have...how does that figure?

Baby it's hot outside

So no new box for Hippolyta and I am sitting in the shade with lemonade while we watch the bees figure out the new pond and deal with a sheet of newpaper of old news.  We are all hot and there are a significant number of bees buzzing on the front of both hives.  

New water source for the bees...and all the other insects

We are all content...until the next adventure!