# What is the general rule for deciding to split a hive?



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

If you can't take 2 or 3 frames of brood and bees and honey from your hive and not leave the same behind when you do then it isn't strong enough to split.

Yes, I would think that splitting a new package the first year would be a bad idea.


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## dweber85rc (Nov 25, 2013)

I don't know if there is a general rule to splits. It really depends on what the purpose of the split is.


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## Norcalkyle (Apr 23, 2015)

dweber85rc said:


> I don't know if there is a general rule to splits. It really depends on what the purpose of the split is.


For me, I am less concerned about increasing the size of my apiary and more concerned about keeping the hives strong. My main reason for a split would be to prevent a swarm, so I would rather not do a split if there is a chance that I may weaken both hives.

I was wondering if people have a rule of thumb that when a certain amount of space is filled with active brood they decide to split.


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## phyber (Apr 14, 2015)

I just did my first split this weekend off my first package hive, which has been doing great since I had them. They have filled out two whole 10 frame deeps with comb and continuously bee laying in it. Honey is getting capped inside and they are moving p to work on the honey super I just added.

I did a walk away split by taking a frame of nectar, a frame of mostly capped brood but large section of eggs, and placed in a nuc along with house bees. My goal is to increase hive counts in hopes they'll build up good to winter, and having more hives would increase my odds of winter survival.

I'd say that at most, counting the house bees, I took away two frames of population counting the capped brood. Would this be enough to seriously harm the donor package bee hive? Maybe, but even if I don't get the nuc to make a good queen, I can always reintroduce the bees back to the donor hive before winter. Now, if there weren't ~15 other frames filled with brood already, I would worry about population loss. Maybe I'll eat some crow later this year...


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## jfmcree (Mar 10, 2014)

I made 6 nucs last year by taking 2-3 frames of brood and honey, at least 1 of which has eggs, to form a nuc. I shook in a frame's worth of additional bees, knowing that some would fly back to their original home. I did that July 8, 2014. 5 Of the 6 survived. The one that did not was a very small population going into late Fall and I should have added brood to them or combined them to avoid their loss.

I wouldn't worry about the impact on the original hive if you aren't looking for honey from it. If you can create a whole new hive without a queen with 2 or 3 frames, the original hive can certainly survive with the remaining 7 or 8 frames, all the brood and a healthy queen.

I strive for at least 5 fully populated frames in my nucs going into the cold weather. Ideally, they are stacked 5 x 2 with good stores on the second level. I split to increase hive count so as to offset Winter losses.

Jim.


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