# Question re split using double screen board



## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

Better to do the split before you have queen cells, as they are likely to swarm with or without them after they are made.

The idea of a double screen split board (also known as a Snelgrove board) is to divert the foragers into the main hive with the queen to trick the bees into thinking they aren't ready to swarm while also raising a new queen "upstairs". The double screen prevents the Queen Mandibular Pheromone from being passes to the bees above the screen, so they think they are queenless and raise some. Hive scent is the same, so the bees are allowed free access between them.

The usual method is to place frames with eggs in the box over the screen, the queen and honey supers below. Opening and closing the small entrances at the sides and rear of the screen board siphons off the foragers into the lower boxes. This keeps the hive "off balance" and they typically will not swarm, while the upper box raises a new queen.

Once the new queen is laying you can decide to keep her to replace the old queen after removing her to either a bottle of alcohol or a nuc box (if you want more hives or swarm lure, eh?) or simply removing the the upper box to a new location for a new hive. 

Read Snelgrove's book, it's available on line, copyright long since expired for a much better explaination.

I successfully did a couple splits that way last year, but it was a screwy spring and I missed on a couple as well and had to re-combine.

Peter


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

blueridge
I am trying one now but it is my first and will be a bit before I know of the success or failure of it.

I will mention a couple of things that I have read. I know most raise the queen in the smaller upper portion of the split. I have read you get better fed queens if you raise them in the strong side of the split which is usually where the foragers are on bottom. I also read that foragers have no problim taking care of brood.

What I did. I found a hive with queen cups with larva in them. I carried the hive off about ten feet and shook all the frames on a ramp over a hive body. I looked for the queen while doing this but never saw her. I left all the brood and queen cups in the origional place where the flying bees flew back to. The top box hopefully has the queen and all most no comb and the youngest bees of the hive. I placed them over the big portion of the hive that holds the brood and old bees. I put feed on this part and a super on the lower part.

I do wish I had threw a little pollen in but oh well. The feed is important cause there is very little flying for a couple of days from the young bees on top.

My observation is that the lower part with the older bees do not seem to be demoralized and are busy as bees bringing in pollen and nector. They must feel they have and avenue to make the queen and seem very happy.

The top part is finaly sending some bees out and I will check friday or so and see if the queen really is with them and if they have built any comb.

I don't really have advice but can just say this is what I have did for now and think it is going to work. I only really have question on the top part at all because the wind blew a small cluster into the grass because I am a slob and was not watching close enough while shaking the bees. Other wise the queen should be there and it should be ok. The other part that is on bottom, I will check in early may and see if the virgin made it back from her mating flight and is laying. I will know more then.

I am in the same boat with a hive that I am fairly sure already swarmed. With it, I moved the origional hive about 20 feet away and put two combs of honey and one of brood with a capped queen cell in the origional spot. I did not stack these on top of each other because what would have been the top hive was just to big to mess with. I will check them for laying queens also sometime early may.

Good luck with your split.
gww


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## lharder (Mar 21, 2015)

What I do is shake all the bees off the brood into the bottom 2 boxes with empty comb with a bit of feed, put on excluder, put on 2 empty boxes with food, empty comb, another excluder, then the brood sans bees on top. Leave them for a day, the bees will go up to look after the brood and distribute themselves. Replace the top excluder with a snelgrove board. I also run upper entrances in the spring, so all the resources get piled into the top box while queens are being made. Once they are made, and brood begins to emerge, I start diverting bees back down to the queen below. Just be careful about manipulating entrances while the virgin is flying.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

BlueRidgeBee said:


> Where if I am understanding, most all the nurse bees are put in the queenless box with the frames that have swarm cells on them (box B) and the foragers return to the original entrance to find the old queen, shaken brood frames that have no swarm cells and some stores.
> 
> Two questions,
> 1. does that leave enough nurse bees below to tend to the open brood remaining in the original position if most all are put into the queenless portion? ( Though I like that all the nurse bees in the split should be able to feed the swarm cells well and the lack of nurse bees in the original position will likely stop the swarm urge.)
> ...


I dont shake the frames very hard so many of the non flying nurse age bees go with the frames going into the lower box. Wax making bees are newly graduated nurses and though oriented will easily revert to nursing if needed. They are only raising worker bees not queens so that is not a problem.

Re casting swarms with emerging virgins; remember that as soon as a bee flys to orient, it is diverted down below the division board so that keeps the top (queenless) box very weak on bees that could form a swarm. Snelgrove advised that if a period of no flying weather kept the bees from flying for a week before virgins would fly, there would have been opportunity to divert flying bees down. In that rare case he suggested gently shaking frames from the top box onto the landing board of the lower box to deplete the numbers of bees who might leave with virgins.

You do have to keep an eye on stores in the top box to make sure they are either fed or feeding themselves. I have never had to feed them and have not apparently had any virgin swarms.

I agree with the value of getting Snelgroves original procedure; I have read most all the methods that google search found related to double screen division boards and find Snelgrove best explains the reasons behind the results you will see. His UK English of the 1930's is a bit cumbersome for us colonials to comprehend but it is golden in content.


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## BlueRidgeBee (Jun 12, 2013)

Thank you to everyone for the great info in your posts! I'm excited to try out several methods that combine swarm prevention with also raising a new (fat and well fed) queen. I like the cut-down split method on Michael Bush's website and am trying that as well as some of the DSB methods. Thanks again and write back as your season develops and I will too.


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