# Vertical Split and Honey Super



## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

From reading only, I believe that is how most do it. I have read that if you place the queen in the upper/smaller split that the bigger portion of the bottom hive has more resources to make better queens but don't think that most do this due to it not being as easy to inspect the queenless side when needed. I have did niether and to take the above with a grain of salt. 
Cheers 
gww


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

chuck kennedy said:


> I have read a variety of posts which explain how to perform a vertical split using a double screen board with the mother colony below the screen and the split above it. However, none of the posts address how to handle a situation with honey supers. For instance, if the mother hive I want to split has a honey super on top, where does that super go in the split configuration?
> 
> I can think of one alternative:
> 
> ...


Your description of position of honey supers is correct. I usually already have two supers on when I do the division or install them at the same time. The extra separation by the two honey supers adds to the division boards effect of inducing cell starting.

I commonly lift the division board and the split above as a unit when I add more supers or wish to lift the existing supers to inspect the lower brood box. The split does not get very heavy as there are few foragers there since you can control their numbers to just enough to supply groceries to that box. I usually only have it on till the new queen above is mated and laying. 

If you decide to run the stack as a 2 queen unit you would have to also put supers above the new queens box and stop diverting foragers to the lower colony; but that is way too tall a venture for me.


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## Kuro (Jun 18, 2015)

Last year was my first “swarm control year" and I did something like that. I did it to stop swarming, not to split the hive (therefore I culled all swarm cells on the day of vertical split, removed all emergency cells I found in the queen-less top section of the vertical split one week later, and combined the two sections back a few weeks later). 

When I found a bunch of almost-capped swarm cells in my hive, I made this

Tele and inner cover.
Two deeps with all open brood frames and food (honey, pollen) frames. The majority of young, non-flying bees went there.
Double screen board
Two honey supers (lots of nectar already there)
Upper entrance shim (optional)
Queen excluder
One deep with the queen, a few frames of capped brood, and a few empty frames
(I had to add another deep one week later)
Bottom entrance

The foragers at the time of split had been oriented to the bottom entrance and the upper entrance and went back to the bottom section with the honey supers. I did the door manipulation every 4 days to lure new foragers from the top section to the bottom section. The colony did not swarm. I do not know if this manipulation affected honey yield. Also, if I wanted to raise a new queen in the top section, I would have stopped the door manipulation sooner so as not to confuse the new queen returning from her mating flight (or I probably would have reversed the top and bottom sections so that the new queen can use the bottom entrance).


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## Eyeman (Oct 23, 2016)

This is the arrangement that you are looking for.
Top tele roof with insulation eke.
Top brood box with inner cover
Entrance under top brood box
Your double screened board, Snelgrove board or just a solid floor will do. If you put a queen excluder here as in the picture you will have a Demaree setup.
Then 2 supers
A queen excluder
Bottom brood box and floor.

The big advantage of a vertical split is you need less kit and less space.


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