Your knowledge is by far better than 99.9% of the beekeepers on UA-cam. Pls keep up the good work. Although this knowledge is difficult for casual backyard beekeepers to understand. They usually don't have the luxury of multiple yards to move boxes. Splitting hives like this within the same yard will for sure fail.
Thoughts on this idea. Late season when you have a honey tower, put a second queen excluder on the top, put a brood box over it and a caged mated queen. Wait for a week or so than walk away with the box of bees and queen.
2 questions. 1. Did you bring any brood up from the parent colony? and 2. Where did you get the queens? My bet depends on your answer to question 1. If those child hives dont have young bees i predict too many bees will fly back to the parent. It would be interesting to see what would happen if you moved the parent. Very risky though- the returning foragers might kill that new queen.
I’ve learnt an observation from Phil while doing this, most mites are I set the cappings right now. These broodless splits are made up pretty much mite free. That’s what I find in my bulk bee splits anyway
Phil, what is your queen acceptance on the take away hives? I would think very good. So if you are doing 200 spits here this fall and you I'm sure did a bunch this spring - what number of new hives do you try to achieve each year when staying at your current hive numbers? If you have a 1,000 hives and 10% go queenless in the summer and in the winter you lose 20% you would need 300 to stay even. It seems when you are a commercial beekeeper you need to make a heck of a lot of splits.
Your numbers are good estimates. I’m open to selling extra hives if I have good wintering success. Sold 50 this year and added 100 hives to the operation.
@@philbeemanHello, how many frames and brood cycles do you expect from the new queens in order for the new families to make it to spring 2025? When will you feed them for winter? Do you store the bees inside during winter ? Thank you.
Hi, I’ve heard that bees won’t use anything that’s fallen down on to the bottom board, have you observed this? Is it different on a brand new bottom board like you’re using here? Thank you for sharing your experiment 👍
HA PHIL THIS IS WHAT I UNDERSTAND U REMOVE HONEY PUT EMPTY BACK.. QUEEN EXCLUDERS ARE ADDED U GO BACK IN A DAY OR 2 REMOVE THE SEC AND ADD A MATED QUEEN. U PUT THE SPLIT IN THE SAME YARD DONT THE FIELD BEES GO BACK TO THE MOTHER HIVE ALWAYS ENJOY YOUR VEDIOS. HAVE A BLESSED DAY
Seems like the bees are brooding nicely right now, I think those splits will brood nicely
I hope so. Would be way easier doing this last week of August instead of 2nd.
It will work ❤
That’s the first solid vote.
Your knowledge is by far better than 99.9% of the beekeepers on UA-cam. Pls keep up the good work.
Although this knowledge is difficult for casual backyard beekeepers to understand. They usually don't have the luxury of multiple yards to move boxes. Splitting hives like this within the same yard will for sure fail.
Agree. Having at least one outward is a powerful tool in bee management.
Good information thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Thoughts on this idea. Late season when you have a honey tower, put a second queen excluder on the top, put a brood box over it and a caged mated queen. Wait for a week or so than walk away with the box of bees and queen.
That is more steps than this method. Every hour counts at this time of year. I would like to do hundreds of splits like this. 225 so far this year.
@@philbeeman you'd gain several weeks before honey pull time..
@@stuffnsuch631 I want to use the surplus bees at the end of the flow.
2 questions. 1. Did you bring any brood up from the parent colony? and 2. Where did you get the queens? My bet depends on your answer to question 1. If those child hives dont have young bees i predict too many bees will fly back to the parent. It would be interesting to see what would happen if you moved the parent. Very risky though- the returning foragers might kill that new queen.
Based on another comment I have another question. Are you moving the splits to another yard? I assumed they were staying right there.
Moving splits to new site. I do not bring up brood. Too much work to do that at the scale I’m looking for.
I’ve learnt an observation from Phil while doing this, most mites are I set the cappings right now. These broodless splits are made up pretty much mite free.
That’s what I find in my bulk bee splits anyway
Since you are moving them, I'll change my answer to it will work fine. I also like Ian's point that these broodless splits will be nearly mite free.
Phil, what is your queen acceptance on the take away hives? I would think very good.
So if you are doing 200 spits here this fall and you I'm sure did a bunch this spring - what number of new hives do you try to achieve each year when staying at your current hive numbers? If you have a 1,000 hives and 10% go queenless in the summer and in the winter you lose 20% you would need 300 to stay even. It seems when you are a commercial beekeeper you need to make a heck of a lot of splits.
Your numbers are good estimates. I’m open to selling extra hives if I have good wintering success. Sold 50 this year and added 100 hives to the operation.
How many weeks of the season do you have left. Or is that not a key factor.
Honey flow over now. Snow in 50 days.
@@philbeemanHello, how many frames and brood cycles do you expect from the new queens in order for the new families to make it to spring 2025? When will you feed them for winter? Do you store the bees inside during winter ? Thank you.
I’m hoping for 2 complete cycles before brood rearing effectively shuts down.
Hi, I’ve heard that bees won’t use anything that’s fallen down on to the bottom board, have you observed this? Is it different on a brand new bottom board like you’re using here? Thank you for sharing your experiment 👍
That is not my experience. They gobble that Patty right up.
@@philbeeman
@@philbeeman thanks I’d like to keep that lid sealed. I’ll give it a try with a couple hives
@@timmyd5144 I’m working on getting my lids waxed.
HA PHIL THIS IS WHAT I UNDERSTAND U REMOVE HONEY PUT EMPTY BACK.. QUEEN EXCLUDERS ARE ADDED U GO BACK IN A DAY OR 2 REMOVE THE SEC AND ADD A MATED QUEEN. U PUT THE SPLIT IN THE SAME YARD DONT THE FIELD BEES GO BACK TO THE MOTHER HIVE ALWAYS ENJOY YOUR VEDIOS. HAVE A BLESSED DAY
I move the splits to a new site.