# Odd Splits



## bsteineman (Mar 26, 2013)

April 12th, Day 1:
Made 2 splits, #1 and #2 with multiple capped queen cells, larvae, capped brood and a lot of nurse bees.

April 18th, Day 7: 
Inspected hive and saw hatched queen cells and a lot of bees

April 25th, Day 14: 
Visually observed bees flying in and out of the hive.

May 9th, Day 28:
Split #1 No bees, no honey, no uncapped brood, all the bees are gone.
Split #1 Has one laying queen all alone. The queen had layed 3 medium frames full of eggs, yet she had no helper bees when I found her. I never saw a queen all alone in a hive with 3 full frames of eggs. I gave the queen some nectar, put her in a queen cage and into another hive.

Did these splits die due to CCD? it looks like all the bees just left.


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## ApricotApiaries (Sep 21, 2014)

How big were the splits? Often when you make a split with multiple capped cells and a bunch of capped brood they will swarm. It is possible they swarmed multiple times, even if they were small. I have seen a 2 frame observation hive with multiple cells put out 5-6 grapefruit sized swarms. Sometimes the bees leave when the virgin goes on her mating flight. Virgins can be pretty fickle and all kinds of things can happen when you are working with them. 
I think people generally inspect too frequently with cells/splits. We generally don't inspect for 20-30 days after cells are put in a nuc. This gives the virgin ample time to emerge, run around, harden up, fly, mate, and start laying undisturbed.


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## beesohappy (Jun 3, 2009)

How is split #2 doing? Could it be that the bees moved to it or gone back to it's original hive while it was waiting for the queen?


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

I had 3 mating nucs swarm out or obscond once the queen started to lay. They were too strong for the 5-frame nuc and the honey flow hit hard, they backfilled the frames sold with nectar/honey. You can look for remnants of eggs. Its also possible they lost a queen but they usually will stick around even if queenless and no brood.


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## bsteineman (Mar 26, 2013)

Hi Apricot, 

Each split had a total of 8 frames:
4 frames of capped/open brood with 2-3 queen cells, 
2 frames of honey
2 frames of pollen. 

Thanks for the info, I'm still puzzled as why all the bees left when they had a laying queen and how she was able to lay 3 full frames of eggs all alone.


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## bsteineman (Mar 26, 2013)

@Beessohappy, split #2 only one queen left in the entire hive, with no other bees. She was all alone and had layed 3 full frames of eggs.


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## bsteineman (Mar 26, 2013)

@burns, yeah the bees definitely left, and there was no honey or pollen left when I inspected the splits. I wish we could get hit hard with a honey flow around here, but I'm in California and we're going through a serious drought.


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

Robbing started two weeks ago in my county in coastal California. Your splits were weak, the opening too large, and the hives were robbed out.
Opening no larger than a pencil helps control robbing until the hive gets on its feet.


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