# Weak split



## Driver (Feb 27, 2021)

Made a walk away split from new hive that was showing signs of swarming on 4/28 last week. Half with queen is down to 3 frames of bees mostly nurse bees who are not forging as of yet. Other half sent with 3 cells and half the recources is active with about 7 frames of bees. Is this too weak of a split?

Thinking my options are
1. Let it bee and keep feeding
2. Add recources from stronger hives
3. Recombine
Thanks!!


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## Akademee (Apr 5, 2020)

Ultimately its your call. Successful splits have been made with fewer bees. Feeding is the most important for any new split. Although unlikely, did you check to see if they are honey bound?


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## Driver (Feb 27, 2021)

Akademee said:


> Ultimately its your call. Successful splits have been made with fewer bees. Feeding is the most important for any new split. Although unlikely, did you check to see if they are honey bound?


Don't appear to bee. 1st ever split so not 100% positive on what the progress should look like with them rebounding. 1 other Hive swarmed couldn't find it, all of these are newly installed nucs. Here in western washington were had an unusually warm early spring big leaf maples were producing heavy.


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## Boondocks (Sep 16, 2020)

Driver said:


> Made a walk away split from new hive that was showing signs of swarming on 4/28 last week. Half with queen is down to 3 frames of bees mostly nurse bees who are not forging as of yet. Other half sent with 3 cells and half the recources is active with about 7 frames of bees. Is this too weak of a split?
> 
> Thinking my options are
> 1. Let it bee and keep feeding
> ...


First I would make sure the queen is still in the hive that is weak. She may have been accidently transferred to the other box and pulled some forager bees over to her new home. If she is still in the weak box you could speed things up by giving the weak hive a frame of brood and bees from a strong hive. Just make sure the other queen is not on the frame you transfer.
I would feed the weak hive some 1:1 syrup to help them along as well.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

A small split with the original queen works well for me. Small splits raising their own queen are a disaster in my part of the world with cold nights.


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## Driver (Feb 27, 2021)

Vance G said:


> A small split with the original queen works well for me. Small splits raising their own queen are a disaster in my part of the world with cold nights.


What temp are considered to cold to be successful?


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