I learned a good tip to find the queen from Mel Disselkohn, who was the developer of the “OTS” method. He said to put an empty box next to your hive and as you inspect each frame, put it in the new box. Your chance of success is much higher, since the queen can’t run to a frame you already inspected.
Good stuff. Thanks. I had a hard time again yesterday. Ended up shaking all the bees into or in front of the new box. The fair Hera flew home and the rest of the bees went into the split. Will be uploading a video on it as soon as I can get it edited. It was kind of a mess but hopefully will work out. It’s amazing how often I see the queen when I am not looking for her.
@@brucesbees Interestingly, when Erika from Texas Beeworks is called to relocate a wild hive, she usually finds the queen towards the end of the move from the wild hive to the travel hive. So the previous comment is spot on. IDK if you've seen her vidoes, but she is as close as a person can get to being a bee whisperer. 95% of the time she uses no protective equipment. She scoops up loads full bees bare handed. Wow.
Yes I have seen her videos. I have a feeling she runs into plants of spicy bees there in Texas and probably suits up for those. I do believe she is a talented beekeeper and knows what she is doing.
This just goes to prove that the bees will tell you what and when you need to do things. I am watching this with some ice and snow on the ground here near Kansas City. I look forward to seeing how these turn out.
My 3 hives are in 3 feet of snow and it was 4 below zero this morning here in northern Maine. I won't see my bees for a while but it was good to see yours! Thanks for the video!
I'm a sugar duster for mite reduction in all my hives. I've been increasing numbers coming out of winter each year and some are past 2nd and 3rd winters. Going into my 9th season with 9 of 10 colonies going strong. My only loss this winter was a strong swarm I got near a naval base here in VA. My guess is they came from a treated hive. Raising my own chemical free queens past 4 years now
I’m going chemical free this year as well. Red maple just starting to bloom here in SW North Carolina and the nectar and pollen is starting to come in very strong. Girls came through winter just fine. My plan is to do splits from my strongest hive coming out of winter. I will brood break them all in August. Going for improving my genetics for wintering and mites.
Hi Bruce. I think you did the right thing at the right time, otherwise you'll end up loosing a lot of new colonies ( swarms ), and the honey harvest from such a strong colonie like this. My suggestion in the next situation like this is to devide the colonie into four like you did by shaking the bees through a queen exluder equally into each box, so you can have a better assessment of queen cells, and be able to catch the queen mother on top of the exluder if she still there. Next, put the queen with a frame of mixt eggs, larvaes, an close brood, and frame of food in a box. Shake some bees to cover the two frame and take it away. Now you can devide the rest of the colonie depending on how many queen cell you collected.
I found OTS my first year in bee keeping. Brad has a wonderful video on the process. Made several successful colonies with that process. Going to explore grafting this year. Different tricks up the sleeve for different times. that colony was going to hit the trees in a week. Probably what you saw were the bees trying to stop her laying so she would slim down and fly. When she tried to lay they were ganging up on her. Never seen it before only read about it! My bees are prepping just like yours. I checked several today and they had nectar they were bringing in!
A lot of the fun in beekeeping is having to adjust your plan on the fly. There is tremendous skill in knowing what you are looking at and what to do with it and a fine art in doing it. Great work, and I agree with your decision. Don't let 'em go to the trees!
Yes this is a big part of what makes beekeeping so attractive. The challenge of figuring out what to do on the fly. It can also be intimidating at times. Especially to those who are new and/or worried about making mistakes.
I just messaged you a bit ago asking about OTS and sent you that link about it! I was hoping to see some notching, but that is awesome how you did it! Basically the same thing. Please keep us updated on these 4 colonies and how they do please! Love your videos and thanks for what you do!
Yes. You gave me the idea. I planned to give it a try. Will try to do one for real later on the year. But I have a lot of other things coming as well once things get rolling for real
@@brucesbees awe man I’m excited to see how these 4 do! I know your busy it’s all good but I will definitely be watching for the videos for the updates with these 4 and if you do some real OTS, but that’s awesome what you did! I think it’s gonna work and do good! Fingers crossed!
Well Bruce you are right on point. Early splits with 3 frames of brood some drawn comb and 2 foundations and feed them up is what Bob Binnie uses and he says they will make a good honey crop. The bees forced your hand here. #Noapologies and #nofear.
I have the same problem finding the queen in larger hives. I think I go into it with wrong mindset thinking it's going to be difficult and I get a little stressed because if I don't find her they're guaranteed to swarm. I've noticed if I go into it with a more carefree attitude I seem to find her more quickly. I just need to remember that hive swarming is far from the end of the world.
I understand what you was planning on doing. However as usual we have to what the bees need at the time and what the situation calls for. I like that you moved the queen to a different box. I don't think it is too early to split if they are bringing in nectar and you have drones. I believe that the you will have 4 hives needing another box in 3 to 4 weeks. Please do a follow up video. Good luck. Holladay Honey Bees
I started tending bees with my family back in 71” , and although I took a break for years some things have changed and some have not , the queens after 50 years of bee keeping still the queen gives me the slip lol
@@brucesbees I think what happens with a lot of people including myself is that whenever I look at a frame of 5,000 bees my eyes wander all over rapidly and I can’t focus on one bee and when I get excited and see a huge thorax with it’s head buried in a cell I think I found my queen and then a drone pops his head out and says man , this honey tastes great !!! What ? I can’t taste the honey?? 😄😄then it’s back to the search and rescue 🤣
We actually had a fly day here in NH on the 14th. Great to see the bees. We still have a tough month ahead before the pollen starts coming in. Thanks for posting.
Hey Bruce, it looks like a good job on splitting, dividing brood, & queen cells. Staple a queen excluder to the bottom of a deep box. I call it a shaker box. Place over your hive & shake frames of bees, then a little smoke to drive them down through it. The queen will usually be in the bottom corner.
Bruce I have the same problem looking for those queens. Sometimes I just want to find her and say hi. I plan on doing the same thing this year, I want to relocate my old queens into two frame nucs and add new queens to the colonies. I believe you did the correct thing. Hope they work out.
Hey Bruce you need a frame perch I can’t brag cause I just got mine and I been keeping bees for years. looks like you got a good start with that hive hope you end up with four good ones.
I've added boxes with comb above each box to open up the colony some in the morning so I could reduce the population. The that evening or next morning I put an election sign between each box and go back in a few hours to check each box for the queen. It's always made it easier in a packed colony.
I would have done EXACTLY what you did...but used Nuc boxes instead.. When I see cells, I split. I'll make 1 split per cell (but if it's as cold as it is now(I think too early), I'll make the splits with at least 3 frames of bees & food.
I’m not sure if I posted already but I wanted to say that I had to do this with a very strong hive last year but it was well passed the beginning of swarm season. This year the same genetics of one of the 4 I split from the main hive is in a double deep 8f with a super and they are already exploding out of it. (80° yesterday in NC) I am so close to having to do what you intended I believe. I, like yourself have a very hard time spotting the queen. In just a week since my last inspection she started laying in the super which is really full of honey. I enjoy watching you do this because it brought me back to what I intended last year only for it to be exactly what you did. (Minus my queen had actually already swarmed on me)
Hello Bruce! I'm entering my third year into beekeeping in north central Ohio and entered spring last year with three booming colonies needing to be immediately split. Along with needing queens which were not yet available also needed woodenware! In the end two colonies entered into waves of swarming and I did not have enough knowledge or support to deal with. Entering 2023 I am preparing to do some type of walk away splits like you did here and should they not make new queens I would expect new queens with be available in following month. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Thank's for sharing!
I like it! In beekeeping you have to be willing to try things. You should reach out to Brian Koper @Castle Hives. I think he might live in that area. He also has a great channel where he addresses a lot of issues that hobbyists have.
Oh I see. If I were you I would reach out or Brian and Greg anyway. They are pretty tuned in to beekeeping in Ohio. They might know someone in your area that you are unaware of. Whatever happens it might be worth taking a trip over to Greg’s for a Learning Yard event sometime this year. That is a great community to be a part of.
I am a hobbyist beekeeper and the trick is simple. Mark her with a Posca permanent pen. It can be quite useful, and you can follow the colour chart, or just mark them one colour like i will do as soon as i get a tool to caught and hold her to paint. And with the colour yu can write down or just memorize the date in the hive, and then you will always find her, and also know if it have swarmed or anything haoenned to the original marked queen
You are the man, Bruce. I would have done the same. I have several hives I'm trying to decide what to do this time of year in piedmont SC with this warm weather. Great video!
I been struggling finding my queens too 😅 University of Guelph has a good video I should rewatch. He recommends training your eyes and searching for queen (nothing else). It's focused work
Agree, if you dont cut their momentum down they will definitely blow up to the trees. YOu have nothing to lose. How old is the Queen, one QC you shown was in a classic supersedure position, I probably would have gave that box a QC just for good measure if I had enough, they will tear it down if they do not need it now that they have space. Either way we got all year to fix anything that goes wrong.
It is in the plans. Just haven’t had a chance to do that yet. I am curious to see how they are doing as well. I will tell you that I added a second box to the hive in the original spot because many of the foragers returned. But I really haven’t gone through these colonies since that day. Hope to get a follow up done next week.
Great video Bruce. Not telling you what to do. What I would be doing as you went would be take my marking pen and mark the frames with the cells. So it’s easier for me to keep track of. Just me because I find there’s to much for my memory to keep up with lol. Great job man. You’ve help me lots. Thanks for your time and effort. 🎉
Great video, yes the bees often change your mind and plan once your inside the hive and as you said if you'd lacked the courage to try something new they'd be in the trees, great plan B on the spot and you won't loose the better part of those bees in a gone swarm, gives your new term "intentional beekeeping" some teeth.
I'm pretty sure they will., at worst none take and you have to combine them all back to a double deep production hive, best you wind up with 4 strong production hives, still better than most of them and the original queen gone in the woods. I'm ballsy, I'd stuck the queen frame, a frame of food and 3 drawn frames in the nuc box and moved her to another yard, leaving queen cells in each of 4 boxes there.
Last year I started the season with a 1 to 3 split. This split happened on May 1st when I found a swarm cell. Split into 3 hives as it was a full double deep 8 frame setup. A week later I found where the queen was. I got a couple queen cells from a local breeder to populate the other 2 hives.
Yeah. So many ways to do things. I hope this works out but if not I can always add a cell later or recombine. It’s a bit risky this time of year because of weather but there were drones galore at that location.
@@brucesbees in all three splits I did the cell depression below a row of eggs but none were found to have emergency queen cells after 7 days. So I opted for purchasing queen cells. And yes it helps to have a queen breeder local to me. Being that since I started bee keeping I've got to know our local Amish neighbors and Amish Beekeepers. My wife and I are constantly getting calls for transporting Amish to shopping and appointments now. In fact my wife will be getting up shortly to go get the school teacher to school and then make a second trip to get the scholars (Amish definition for school children) to school. I mentioned that I have lost 3 hives this winter. Unfortunately one of those losses was the original queen from the 3 way split.
Yeah you never know exactly what to expect. I try a lot of things. Most work out fine. Some don’t. But the little critters are always teaching me things.
I agree you did the right thing. Here in SC my hives are exploding, but no swarm cells yet. In singles, I have a minimum of 4 frames of brood and doubles up to 8. I am adding deep boxes of drawn comb and foundation, just to give them room. Drones are everywhere. i don't want to split yet,, but may be forced to in a couple of weeks. Will the 4 hives, will they be honey producers? Thanks Bruce.
We will see. I have not decided if I will place as much focus on honey or rather growing my operation this year. I definitely need honey but not sure I need as much as last year. Will be interesting to see how things work out!
I've never tried the OTS method either. I typically do what you did, move the Queen and leave the cells. It'll be time for this in a few weeks in Ohio.
Thanks for checking in Brian. The OTS intrigues me because you basically set up a cell starter colony and notch certain cells to predetermine which larvae you want to become queens. Almost like grafting without having to actually do so.
Hopefully I can get it done. I have a lot of other splits in the future but usually split with cells or queens. One thing it for sure…Exciting times are ahead!
Great video! This is me every time I go out it seems. I have one plan and the bees have a different plan. Now I’m really nervous about what I’m gonna find when I get into them this week. I had drones and/or drone brood in half my colonies last week. It’s about to crank up and get serious!
Always mark your queens when you see them it makes it much easier when you need to find them !!!! Are the cells in the middle of the frames supersedure cells .
I don't think this was crazy. If they swarm they would be just as you did but only without the safety of a box in which they keep warm. My vote is "agree". Looking forward to bee season in Mo.
When I come upon a hive like this one (still has its queen and capped and almost capped queen cells) I figure I have two options. First and foremost is to pull the queen out and put her (along with bees, brood and food resources) in a nuc box and place her elsewhere. The hive then thinks she/it has swarmed out. Then what to do with the remaining bees and cells: Option One: If I want increases: The remaining bees and cells in the original position can either be split up the way you did into multiple hives (each with several capped queen cells). Option Two: I want to keep the honey/production hive: I can reduce the number of capped queen cells in the hive to just 2 or 3 largest capped queen cells (remove the rest) and let the hive requeen itself. Reducing the number of queen cells is key. Leaving too many and the bees will probably swarm anyway. With this method I still have the original queen if one of the splits fail or if the mother hive fails to requeen itself. If all splits go well I've gained another hive or two and still have a queen in reserve.
I am not a bee keeper .But it seems like a good way to save your bees the chance of swarming. .That origanle hive sure was calm . Maybe if you were able to mark the queens like most other keepers do . I am up in orillia Ontario still having a few more months of winter to look forward too .
If you have drones emerging then you can start grafting....that’s rule of thumb in My part of England. It’s not determined by a date or month. A few weeks of good flying weather ahead is clearly very helpful for mating.
Looks good Bruce, I've been looking out for Cells, been seeing some Drone brood In My hives, not a whole lot but have some drones coming soon. good stuff
My ability to find the queen sucks. I had 1 hive that had swarm cells and I couldn't find the queen. Even had my local queen breeder look. He had no luck either. So the assumption was that the hive must have already swarmed.
Hello from Baldwin County and Roll Tide! I have three hives I plan on splitting. Checked on them last weekend and they're busting at the seams. I was thinking of splitting them up this weekend before they started swarming on me. The Red Maple is in full bloom right now down here and it's all over the interstate. I'm hoping to get 9 hives from these three and also hoping tonight is the last big storm and cold snap we have down here this year. Also, did you know March 6th is Naked Gardening day! So go ahead and get your tomatoes ready as well!!! lol. Thanks for all your videos man.
Lol. Yep won’t be any naked gardening or beekeeping happening over here. Good luck with your bees. Maybe this will be the last little cold snap. Goodness. Beekeeping season is here!
I think you done the same thing I would've some myself Bruce. I read a few comments of people thinking she will still swarm but I'm actually thinking once they settle in the boxes that the swarming behavior will fade in the Mother Colony of course unless you are like me and accidentally missed a Queen Cell. Maybe you could make you a shaker box with an excluder like Bob uses sometimes. I personally have never used one but I could see where it COULD spend some situations up or possibly make things easier which of course as you know you don't need to shake the frames with the cells on it if you have intentions on using them. Thanks for the video!
Yeah I need to look into the shaker Hix system. Have tried some different things in the past but haven’t had great success. Probably just doing it wrong.
I JUST said a week ago that I wanted to educate myself on the OTS split and there you go intending to do one. Notice I said "intending". :). I am still new enough that I am going to ask questions that may be obvious to most. I noticed you had a queen cell on one of your frames that I think was supercedure? I am wondering if that is why the girls were getting after your queen? Thoughts? We still have another month or more before we'll be able to get into our bees here in Central Maine (Hermon) the way you are right now so we are living vicariously through you, Mr. Jenne!
I am honestly not sure what they were doing but once o set her down in the box they seemed happy and started running towards her. I am not always sure what the bees are doing or why they do it. Learning every time I crack open a box.
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beekeeping is always an adventure for sure ... this crazy warm weather has me worried because everything is happening 6-8 weeks earlier than normal for my location in kentucky
@@brucesbees I'm actually not lol, thats the problem. Mine have been bringing in maple pollen since 2nd week of january and normally that is early to mid march. My bees have flown more this winter than they were clustered up
The only thing I would have done different is I would have moved the other 3 splits away from the parent colony to another yard. This has always kept me from having a problem with them drifting back to the original hive.
That is always a good option. I have had success doing both but do expect the population to drop in the three that were not the parent colony. The foragers will end up back in the original colony and the nurse bees will stay behind. Hopefully they are strong enough. Will have to monitor and maybe add some brood or bees in the coming weeks. Typically works out well but it is a little early. Will see what shakes down.
If they are bringing in pollen and nectar, why not split? Other way would be lots more work and they could possibly swarm anyway. I think it was a good choice.
i belive it is gona be fine, fling drones now, til the virgin queen mainting flight you will have lots of mature drones you will need just good weather, all the best from romania
Thanks for checking in. Yes the weather is the wildcard in the equation. Maybe everything will be ok. If things don’t work out as planned we will figure out a solution and move on.
I learned a good tip to find the queen from Mel Disselkohn, who was the developer of the “OTS” method. He said to put an empty box next to your hive and as you inspect each frame, put it in the new box. Your chance of success is much higher, since the queen can’t run to a frame you already inspected.
Good stuff. Thanks. I had a hard time again yesterday. Ended up shaking all the bees into or in front of the new box. The fair Hera flew home and the rest of the bees went into the split. Will be uploading a video on it as soon as I can get it edited. It was kind of a mess but hopefully will work out. It’s amazing how often I see the queen when I am not looking for her.
@@brucesbees Interestingly, when Erika from Texas Beeworks is called to relocate a wild hive, she usually finds the queen towards the end of the move from the wild hive to the travel hive. So the previous comment is spot on. IDK if you've seen her vidoes, but she is as close as a person can get to being a bee whisperer. 95% of the time she uses no protective equipment. She scoops up loads full bees bare handed. Wow.
Yes I have seen her videos. I have a feeling she runs into plants of spicy bees there in Texas and probably suits up for those. I do believe she is a talented beekeeper and knows what she is doing.
So amazing seeing you split hives this early in the season and they were ready to swarm.
I hope they do well. Thanks for checking on Rickey!
That's warm down there.
This just goes to prove that the bees will tell you what and when you need to do things. I am watching this with some ice and snow on the ground here near Kansas City. I look forward to seeing how these turn out.
Me too. A lot of it will depend on whether or not Mother Nature cooperates. It is a bit risky.
I'm trying to learn what to do with the bees. I don't have any yet but as soon as I can I would like to have at least 2 hives.
Good luck. Thanks for watching.
My 3 hives are in 3 feet of snow and it was 4 below zero this morning here in northern Maine. I won't see my bees for a while but it was good to see yours! Thanks for the video!
It will be here before you know it. Thanks for watching!
I think you did great, I like to see a follow up with this hives.
I'm a sugar duster for mite reduction in all my hives. I've been increasing numbers coming out of winter each year and some are past 2nd and 3rd winters. Going into my 9th season with 9 of 10 colonies going strong. My only loss this winter was a strong swarm I got near a naval base here in VA. My guess is they came from a treated hive. Raising my own chemical free queens past 4 years now
I’m going chemical free this year as well. Red maple just starting to bloom here in SW North Carolina and the nectar and pollen is starting to come in very strong.
Girls came through winter just fine. My plan is to do splits from my strongest hive coming out of winter. I will brood break them all in August. Going for improving my genetics for wintering and mites.
I crop dusted mine and the winter has been very mild on my bees and they are just exploding in northern NC
Great example of how to use what you find on the fly!!! And if you get 3 out of 4 you’re doing well! Great video!
Thanks Ashby!
Hi Bruce. I think you did the right thing at the right time, otherwise you'll end up loosing a lot of new colonies ( swarms ), and the honey harvest from such a strong colonie like this. My suggestion in the next situation like this is to devide the colonie into four like you did by shaking the bees through a queen exluder equally into each box, so you can have a better assessment of queen cells, and be able to catch the queen mother on top of the exluder if she still there. Next, put the queen with a frame of mixt eggs, larvaes, an close brood, and frame of food in a box. Shake some bees to cover the two frame and take it away. Now you can devide the rest of the colonie depending on how many queen cell you collected.
Thanks for the tip. And thanks for watching. It turned out well.
I found OTS my first year in bee keeping. Brad has a wonderful video on the process. Made several successful colonies with that process. Going to explore grafting this year. Different tricks up the sleeve for different times. that colony was going to hit the trees in a week. Probably what you saw were the bees trying to stop her laying so she would slim down and fly. When she tried to lay they were ganging up on her. Never seen it before only read about it! My bees are prepping just like yours. I checked several today and they had nectar they were bringing in!
Will be interesting to see how things turn out.
@@brucesbees Will be, please keep us updated.
With these big full. Colonies sometimes I have to just end up shaking them down thru a excluder to find the queen . Great looking bees . THANKS
Yes. I need to get better at this.
Wow! Looking forward to the next time you come back to check on the 4 way split .
I am hopeful but also a bit nervous. Hopefully it works out well.
A lot of the fun in beekeeping is having to adjust your plan on the fly. There is tremendous skill in knowing what you are looking at and what to do with it and a fine art in doing it. Great work, and I agree with your decision. Don't let 'em go to the trees!
Yes this is a big part of what makes beekeeping so attractive. The challenge of figuring out what to do on the fly. It can also be intimidating at times. Especially to those who are new and/or worried about making mistakes.
Us northern Beekeepers are envious of you Bee Keepers in the south.. Single digit lows here. Good decision to split. Awesome video!
Thanks for checking in.
Hi from Ukraine. I watch your videos to take over some new experience in a beekeeping, and just not to forget English
Awesome. Thanks!
I just messaged you a bit ago asking about OTS and sent you that link about it! I was hoping to see some notching, but that is awesome how you did it! Basically the same thing. Please keep us updated on these 4 colonies and how they do please! Love your videos and thanks for what you do!
Yes. You gave me the idea. I planned to give it a try. Will try to do one for real later on the year. But I have a lot of other things coming as well once things get rolling for real
@@brucesbees awe man I’m excited to see how these 4 do! I know your busy it’s all good but I will definitely be watching for the videos for the updates with these 4 and if you do some real OTS, but that’s awesome what you did! I think it’s gonna work and do good! Fingers crossed!
I hope so. We will see!
Lookingforward to seeing the results of this 4 way split.
Me too!
I think you did a great job. We are thinking of splitting our hives too
After reading lots of books on beekeeping, what you did seems to make the most sense to me. I think I would’ve done the same thing.
Yes it made sense. Fortunately it worked out well.
I believe you did do it right. Will find out when you check them again.
I think you did the right thing. I think the hive was ready to split. Don’t beat yourself, have patients
Hope it works out. I think it will.
@@brucesbees give it 3 weeks
Look at all of that beautiful bee footage
Absolutely. Amazing little critters!
Well Bruce you are right on point. Early splits with 3 frames of brood some drawn comb and 2 foundations and feed them up is what Bob Binnie uses and he says they will make a good honey crop. The bees forced your hand here. #Noapologies and #nofear.
Thanks. Time will tell. And we have plenty of time to adjust if we need to in a few weeks.
I have the same problem finding the queen in larger hives. I think I go into it with wrong mindset thinking it's going to be difficult and I get a little stressed because if I don't find her they're guaranteed to swarm. I've noticed if I go into it with a more carefree attitude I seem to find her more quickly. I just need to remember that hive swarming is far from the end of the world.
Good points. Thanks for sharing.
That was the best decision. Glad you had the cells to work with.
Thanks. Hope it works.
I think you did GREAT!!! I will be doing this as weather permits. Let us know how you make out .
Will try to do that. Thanks for watching.
Love it! Please do a follow-up video on this split. Still waiting for you to come see my apiary in St. George, UT.
Thanks for checking in. Glad you like it! Maybe we can work that out in the future.
I understand what you was planning on doing. However as usual we have to what the bees need at the time and what the situation calls for.
I like that you moved the queen to a different box. I don't think it is too early to split if they are bringing in nectar and you have drones. I believe that the you will have 4 hives needing another box in 3 to 4 weeks. Please do a follow up video. Good luck. Holladay Honey Bees
Thanks for checking in!
Wow I loved watching this. With easy to follow instructions.. keep up the great work and I hope it all goes well.. sending luck from Dunolly Australia
Awesome. Thanks so much for checking in from down under!
Some queens are excellent escape artists. They will run to the back side of the frame faster than you can look.
You are right! I have a hard time finding them much of the time. Still. After 10 years of doing this
I started tending bees with my family back in 71” , and although I took a break for years some things have changed and some have not , the queens after 50 years of bee keeping still the queen gives me the slip lol
No doubt haha. So hard to find her sometimes.
@@brucesbees I think what happens with a lot of people including myself is that whenever I look at a frame of 5,000 bees my eyes wander all over rapidly and I can’t focus on one bee and when I get excited and see a huge thorax with it’s head buried in a cell I think I found my queen and then a drone pops his head out and says man , this honey tastes great !!! What ? I can’t taste the honey?? 😄😄then it’s back to the search and rescue 🤣
I do this with my hives all the time, because it's cheaper than buying queens or grafting queen cells for now currently.
Yep. Works well much of the time. Hopefully can get a follow up video done soon.
You're doing the way I would great job.
We actually had a fly day here in NH on the 14th. Great to see the bees. We still have a tough month ahead before the pollen starts coming in. Thanks for posting.
Hi!! From another NH beekeeper!
@@melissacorey755 howdy, bees were out yesterday!
Great stuff y’all. Thanks for checking in!
Gotta stick together! Looks like next week our bees will be up and running between spring rain storms.
Good stuff. The adventure begins!
I am so ready to make some splits. Waiting on some warm weather. The ots method is a good idea. Thanks Bruce!
Thanks for checking in. Will see how things work out!
When I have a hard time and I plan on doing a split i separate the two boxes and come back in an hour or so and usually you can tell which box anyway
Great advice. Thanks for sharing!
Anxious to see how it goes.
Me too!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Where did you find these plastic frames? Best regards.
Pierco. I prefer the triple waxed frames. The more wax the better they draw them out.
WOW This gives me some ideas for when I do my splits. thanks
You’re welcome. And thank you for watching. So many ways to do things.
Hey Bruce, it looks like a good job on splitting, dividing brood, & queen cells. Staple a queen excluder to the bottom of a deep box. I call it a shaker box. Place over your hive & shake frames of bees, then a little smoke to drive them down through it. The queen will usually be in the bottom corner.
May need to try that. I have to figure out a quicker way.
The art of beekeeping doing what nature tells you to do.
Thanks for checking in. Hopefully I read nature correctly. There is a lesson to be learned either way. 🙂
Bruce I have the same problem looking for those queens. Sometimes I just want to find her and say hi. I plan on doing the same thing this year, I want to relocate my old queens into two frame nucs and add new queens to the colonies. I believe you did the correct thing. Hope they work out.
Yes. I would think I would be better at it by now. Sometimes they just blend in lol! Thanks for watching. Will be interesting to see what happens.
Hey Bruce you need a frame perch I can’t brag cause I just got mine and I been keeping bees for years. looks like you got a good start with that hive hope you end up with four good ones.
Me too. Was going to check them today for a follow up but the weather did not cooperate.
Excited to see the results.
I am also excited but nervous. It’s still just a little early.
I've added boxes with comb above each box to open up the colony some in the morning so I could reduce the population. The that evening or next morning I put an election sign between each box and go back in a few hours to check each box for the queen. It's always made it easier in a packed colony.
Good stuff. Thanks!
Very calm. Wish I had went with you over to Slocomb.
Yeah you never know what you will find. Always an adventure.
I would have done something very similar. Perhaps starting in nucs this early in season.
Good stuff Bruce.
Can't wait for spring!
It will be here very soon.
I would have done EXACTLY what you did...but used Nuc boxes instead..
When I see cells, I split. I'll make 1 split per cell (but if it's as cold as it is now(I think too early), I'll make the splits with at least 3 frames of bees & food.
Yes that is an option. Didn’t have that many nuc boxes with me lol. Hopefully things will turn out ok.
I’m not sure if I posted already but I wanted to say that I had to do this with a very strong hive last year but it was well passed the beginning of swarm season. This year the same genetics of one of the 4 I split from the main hive is in a double deep 8f with a super and they are already exploding out of it. (80° yesterday in NC) I am so close to having to do what you intended I believe. I, like yourself have a very hard time spotting the queen. In just a week since my last inspection she started laying in the super which is really full of honey. I enjoy watching you do this because it brought me back to what I intended last year only for it to be exactly what you did. (Minus my queen had actually already swarmed on me)
Good stuff. Thanks for watching!
Great job on the split
Thanks!
How did this 4 way split work out. Thanks for the Hivealive discount! Still works 1/29/2024
Good deal. Here is an update on the 4 way split. This video just dropped yesterday. ua-cam.com/video/ugh2IDNl_2Q/v-deo.htmlsi=qhBd1fgrNPRUVqnf
Hello Bruce! I'm entering my third year into beekeeping in north central Ohio and entered spring last year with three booming colonies needing to be immediately split. Along with needing queens which were not yet available also needed woodenware! In the end two colonies entered into waves of swarming and I did not have enough knowledge or support to deal with. Entering 2023 I am preparing to do some type of walk away splits like you did here and should they not make new queens I would expect new queens with be available in following month. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Thank's for sharing!
I like it! In beekeeping you have to be willing to try things. You should reach out to Brian Koper @Castle Hives. I think he might live in that area. He also has a great channel where he addresses a lot of issues that hobbyists have.
@@brucesbees Thank you for the recommendation but Brian is a little too far away from me.
Oh I see. If I were you I would reach out or Brian and Greg anyway. They are pretty tuned in to beekeeping in Ohio. They might know someone in your area that you are unaware of. Whatever happens it might be worth taking a trip over to Greg’s for a Learning Yard event sometime this year. That is a great community to be a part of.
This kind of day in the bee yard is a wonderful problem to have.
For sure.
I am a hobbyist beekeeper and the trick is simple. Mark her with a Posca permanent pen. It can be quite useful, and you can follow the colour chart, or just mark them one colour like i will do as soon as i get a tool to caught and hold her to paint. And with the colour yu can write down or just memorize the date in the hive, and then you will always find her, and also know if it have swarmed or anything haoenned to the original marked queen
Yep. That works well!
@@brucesbees
Then i found your red queen after hehe... poor baby
Hopefully old man winter will bee kind when it's time for mating flights. Good luck!
Yes! I hope so.
You are the man, Bruce. I would have done the same. I have several hives I'm trying to decide what to do this time of year in piedmont SC with this warm weather. Great video!
Whew sometimes it’s tough to know this time of year. It is a bit risky. A month from now it would be a no brainer.
I been struggling finding my queens too 😅
University of Guelph has a good video I should rewatch. He recommends training your eyes and searching for queen (nothing else).
It's focused work
Yes. It’s a challenge. I think I am getting better at it.
Agree, if you dont cut their momentum down they will definitely blow up to the trees. YOu have nothing to lose. How old is the Queen, one QC you shown was in a classic supersedure position, I probably would have gave that box a QC just for good measure if I had enough, they will tear it down if they do not need it now that they have space. Either way we got all year to fix anything that goes wrong.
Good stuff man. I checked in them today. Follow up video coming soon.
I think you were smart with the fondant. Good luck
I hope they work out ok.
I would love a follow up. How are these colonys doing?
It is in the plans. Just haven’t had a chance to do that yet. I am curious to see how they are doing as well. I will tell you that I added a second box to the hive in the original spot because many of the foragers returned. But I really haven’t gone through these colonies since that day. Hope to get a follow up done next week.
Great video Bruce. Not telling you what to do. What I would be doing as you went would be take my marking pen and mark the frames with the cells. So it’s easier for me to keep track of. Just me because I find there’s to much for my memory to keep up with lol. Great job man. You’ve help me lots. Thanks for your time and effort. 🎉
That’s a great idea. Thanks for sharing it!
Awesome 👍👍👍 , that is gonna work fine
I hope so.
Everything you did made sense to me, did it work out good? Im thinking about doing the same thing
Worked out well. There are a couple of follow videos including my most recent one.
Great video! Anxious to see you do OTS splits
Maybe can get it done but have a lot of other things in store as well.
Great video, yes the bees often change your mind and plan once your inside the hive and as you said if you'd lacked the courage to try something new they'd be in the trees, great plan B on the spot and you won't loose the better part of those bees in a gone swarm, gives your new term "intentional beekeeping" some teeth.
Thanks. Hopefully things will work out in a positive way.
I'm pretty sure they will., at worst none take and you have to combine them all back to a double deep production hive, best you wind up with 4 strong production hives, still better than most of them and the original queen gone in the woods. I'm ballsy, I'd stuck the queen frame, a frame of food and 3 drawn frames in the nuc box and moved her to another yard, leaving queen cells in each of 4 boxes there.
Last year I started the season with a 1 to 3 split. This split happened on May 1st when I found a swarm cell. Split into 3 hives as it was a full double deep 8 frame setup. A week later I found where the queen was. I got a couple queen cells from a local breeder to populate the other 2 hives.
Yeah. So many ways to do things. I hope this works out but if not I can always add a cell later or recombine. It’s a bit risky this time of year because of weather but there were drones galore at that location.
@@brucesbees in all three splits I did the cell depression below a row of eggs but none were found to have emergency queen cells after 7 days. So I opted for purchasing queen cells. And yes it helps to have a queen breeder local to me. Being that since I started bee keeping I've got to know our local Amish neighbors and Amish Beekeepers. My wife and I are constantly getting calls for transporting Amish to shopping and appointments now. In fact my wife will be getting up shortly to go get the school teacher to school and then make a second trip to get the scholars (Amish definition for school children) to school.
I mentioned that I have lost 3 hives this winter. Unfortunately one of those losses was the original queen from the 3 way split.
Yeah you never know exactly what to expect. I try a lot of things. Most work out fine. Some don’t. But the little critters are always teaching me things.
I like the Doolittle method because you don’t have to find the queen.
I agree you did the right thing. Here in SC my hives are exploding, but no swarm cells yet. In singles, I have a minimum of 4 frames of brood and doubles up to 8. I am adding deep boxes of drawn comb and foundation, just to give them room. Drones are everywhere. i don't want to split yet,, but may be forced to in a couple of weeks. Will the 4 hives, will they be honey producers? Thanks Bruce.
We will see. I have not decided if I will place as much focus on honey or rather growing my operation this year. I definitely need honey but not sure I need as much as last year. Will be interesting to see how things work out!
Bruce, I think that colony needed what the Doctor ordered!
I think I did the right thing. Hopefully it will work out. Time will tell. Thanks for checking in Don!
I've never tried the OTS method either. I typically do what you did, move the Queen and leave the cells. It'll be time for this in a few weeks in Ohio.
Thanks for checking in Brian. The OTS intrigues me because you basically set up a cell starter colony and notch certain cells to predetermine which larvae you want to become queens. Almost like grafting without having to actually do so.
I’ll will be interested how this turns out!!
I hope it works out well. A little early but we will see.
I think it is a good split.
I hope so. We will see.
Good call in my opinion
Hope it works out.
Good to see you adjust on the fly. Still would like to see you do ots and it’s result
Hopefully I can get it done. I have a lot of other splits in the future but usually split with cells or queens. One thing it for sure…Exciting times are ahead!
Great video! This is me every time I go out it seems. I have one plan and the bees have a different plan. Now I’m really nervous about what I’m gonna find when I get into them this week. I had drones and/or drone brood in half my colonies last week. It’s about to crank up and get serious!
Yes. It’s just about “go” time!
Always mark your queens when you see them it makes it much easier when you need to find them !!!! Are the cells in the middle of the frames supersedure cells .
I try to do that when I am certain of the year.
I don't think this was crazy. If they swarm they would be just as you did but only without the safety of a box in which they keep warm. My vote is "agree". Looking forward to bee season in Mo.
Hope it turns out ok. I think it will.
When I come upon a hive like this one (still has its queen and capped and almost capped queen cells) I figure I have two options. First and foremost is to pull the queen out and put her (along with bees, brood and food resources) in a nuc box and place her elsewhere. The hive then thinks she/it has swarmed out. Then what to do with the remaining bees and cells: Option One: If I want increases: The remaining bees and cells in the original position can either be split up the way you did into multiple hives (each with several capped queen cells). Option Two: I want to keep the honey/production hive: I can reduce the number of capped queen cells in the hive to just 2 or 3 largest capped queen cells (remove the rest) and let the hive requeen itself. Reducing the number of queen cells is key. Leaving too many and the bees will probably swarm anyway. With this method I still have the original queen if one of the splits fail or if the mother hive fails to requeen itself. If all splits go well I've gained another hive or two and still have a queen in reserve.
Absolutely. Thanks for the input.
And if one or more of these fail I can always add another queen later or re-combine.
I am not a bee keeper .But it seems like a good way to save your bees the chance of swarming. .That origanle hive sure was calm . Maybe if you were able to mark the queens like most other keepers do . I am up in orillia Ontario still having a few more months of winter to look forward too .
Yes I try to mark them when I am certain what year they are re from. But if unsure I leave them unmarked.
If you have drones emerging then you can start grafting....that’s rule of thumb in My part of England. It’s not determined by a date or month. A few weeks of good flying weather ahead is clearly very helpful for mating.
Yeah there will be plenty of weather for them to fly around. They are already doing it at that location.
It seems your bees are like mine, they don't read the books so they do their own thing sometimes. Interesting--thanks.
Absolutely.
I think you made a good move on this hive.
Thanks. We will see. It’s still pretty early.
Looks good Bruce, I've been looking out for Cells, been seeing some Drone brood In My hives, not a whole lot but have some drones coming soon. good stuff
Yep Grayson. When Tom was here there were no drones in Ozark. Ten days ago. Slocomb is further south and ahead of my other locations for sure.
My ability to find the queen sucks. I had 1 hive that had swarm cells and I couldn't find the queen. Even had my local queen breeder look. He had no luck either. So the assumption was that the hive must have already swarmed.
You just never know.
Hello from Baldwin County and Roll Tide! I have three hives I plan on splitting. Checked on them last weekend and they're busting at the seams. I was thinking of splitting them up this weekend before they started swarming on me. The Red Maple is in full bloom right now down here and it's all over the interstate. I'm hoping to get 9 hives from these three and also hoping tonight is the last big storm and cold snap we have down here this year. Also, did you know March 6th is Naked Gardening day! So go ahead and get your tomatoes ready as well!!! lol. Thanks for all your videos man.
Lol. Yep won’t be any naked gardening or beekeeping happening over here. Good luck with your bees. Maybe this will be the last little cold snap. Goodness. Beekeeping season is here!
Im i Darlington S.C. and still worry about our weather. Dont want to roll my queen. Need to be patient with my inspections
Yes it is still a risk right now. But it won’t be long before things are rolling!
Great job!
Thanks. It has been fun!
I think you done the same thing I would've some myself Bruce. I read a few comments of people thinking she will still swarm but I'm actually thinking once they settle in the boxes that the swarming behavior will fade in the Mother Colony of course unless you are like me and accidentally missed a Queen Cell. Maybe you could make you a shaker box with an excluder like Bob uses sometimes. I personally have never used one but I could see where it COULD spend some situations up or possibly make things easier which of course as you know you don't need to shake the frames with the cells on it if you have intentions on using them. Thanks for the video!
Yeah I need to look into the shaker Hix system. Have tried some different things in the past but haven’t had great success. Probably just doing it wrong.
When I see capped swarm cells, I do the same...make splits. Destroying the queen cells is just delaying the inevitable.
I tend to agree.
Great video.
I think it will work!
I hope so!
It looked like you made the choice with what you found in the colony. I hope you’ll do a follow up video what happens.
I will try to do that. But it’s about to get wild around here.
@@brucesbees we seem to be ahead of schedule here in SC as well. Bees are taking off. Looks like it may be a crazy year.
Yep. We shall see. Whatever happens it will be an adventure!
I JUST said a week ago that I wanted to educate myself on the OTS split and there you go intending to do one. Notice I said "intending". :). I am still new enough that I am going to ask questions that may be obvious to most. I noticed you had a queen cell on one of your frames that I think was supercedure? I am wondering if that is why the girls were getting after your queen? Thoughts? We still have another month or more before we'll be able to get into our bees here in Central Maine (Hermon) the way you are right now so we are living vicariously through you, Mr. Jenne!
I am honestly not sure what they were doing but once o set her down in the box they seemed happy and started running towards her. I am not always sure what the bees are doing or why they do it. Learning every time I crack open a box.
2/15 I put Hive Alive fondant on my colonies and found that I have lost 3 of 13. Guess now the extra fondant will be used on future splits.
Fortunately it has a 2 year shelf life. Unfortunately it does not save 💯 of colonies.
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Thanks for checking in!
beekeeping is always an adventure for sure ... this crazy warm weather has me worried because everything is happening 6-8 weeks earlier than normal for my location in kentucky
Whew! Hope your ready! I’m not lol.
@@brucesbees I'm actually not lol, thats the problem. Mine have been bringing in maple pollen since 2nd week of january and normally that is early to mid march. My bees have flown more this winter than they were clustered up
The only thing I would have done different is I would have moved the other 3 splits away from the parent colony to another yard. This has always kept me from having a problem with them drifting back to the original hive.
That is always a good option. I have had success doing both but do expect the population to drop in the three that were not the parent colony. The foragers will end up back in the original colony and the nurse bees will stay behind. Hopefully they are strong enough. Will have to monitor and maybe add some brood or bees in the coming weeks. Typically works out well but it is a little early. Will see what shakes down.
enjoyed the video, hope u do one with ots queen rearing I would like to see that have a blessed day
I want to do that. Had someone request it recently. Have never really done a true OTS split with notched cells before. Just didn’t work out this time.
If they are bringing in pollen and nectar, why not split? Other way would be lots more work and they could possibly swarm anyway. I think it was a good choice.
Thanks! Hopefully it will work out ok.
i belive it is gona be fine, fling drones now, til the virgin queen mainting flight you will have lots of mature drones you will need just good weather, all the best from romania
Thanks for checking in. Yes the weather is the wildcard in the equation. Maybe everything will be ok. If things don’t work out as planned we will figure out a solution and move on.