# Split? Share?



## Hops Brewster (Jun 17, 2014)

Let's see if my 'smartphone gibberish' translator is working;
"Do I need to be thgo bling of making a plot?" means Do I need to be thinking of making a split? yeah?

First, take a closer look at the nuc, make sure of the brood situation. Use a magnifier if you need to in order to see whether there are any eggs or open larvae, or even get another beek to look with you. If you are certain there is no open brood, it might be a good idea to give it a frame of open brood from the strong hive, and maybe another the next week. 

I had to do this same thing for a package installed in April. It started out strong, but a few weeks in there was no new brood. So 5 1/2 weeks ago I put a frame of open brood from my strongest colony in there, now I have a new queen laying gangbusters in that package colony.


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## DanielD (Jul 21, 2012)

If you don't want more colonies, you can take a frame or two of brood with nurse bees from the strong hive and put it into the nuc to strengthen it. Then you can place undrawn frames in the bigger hive, which may keep it from swarming. You can do that again when they get the empty frames drawn and using them. If you do add brood frames to the smaller hive, watch it close for crowding and swarm prep. They can grow fast. It would help the big hive keep from swarming to remove brood frames and replace them with undrawn frames. 

You can also let it get as big as you want it to by opening up the brood nest like that when needed. In the last month, some hives of mine have been given a couple foundation frames a week in the brood. When a good flow is on you want to give them plenty of room for nectar storage.


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