# Splits



## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

I tried it and had trouble. 100 yards is not far enough. I put robber screens on and in a few days all was well.

Next year I will start with robber screens on the splits.

Alex


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

Yes, I do and I only have one yard and never move anything out of there.

Robber screens work, so do Snelgrove boards. And for very small splits, I use queen castles.

A lot depends on what parts (resources, bees, brood, queen) of the hive are placed in which section of the split and where each part of the split is placed afterwards.

Also, I rarely make the bust-the-whole-hive- up type of splits which I think are harder to manage in the same yard, if for no other reason than so many new colonies are made up that most of them lose bees, willy-nilly.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

last year I did a lot of bust-m-ups in my main yard. This year the main yards focus is (learning) grafting and mating nucs to improve the gentnics by requeening now that my numbers are up, But I am busting-m-up the hives in the out yards 
I use fly back splits as described here http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...it-Last-light-or-Midday&p=1168911#post1168911
Rather then fight the foragers returning home it counts on them. 
I move the QL section 10-25' or so away to a clear spot in the yard, come back in 10 days to break it into nucs and leave the nucs in a ring with the entrance pointing toward the old location of the QL section.


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

All the time. Just know that the forager bees fly back to the original so add plenty of nurse bees to keep the brood warm and the stores guarded.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Do any of you do splits and leave them in the same yard without any trouble?

I've never put a split in a different yard. You have to account for drift by some way or another.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm


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## Kassafrass (Mar 22, 2017)

Michael Bush said:


> >Do any of you do splits and leave them in the same yard without any trouble?
> 
> I've never put a split in a different yard. You have to account for drift by some way or another.
> http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm


I have your book and read the section you posted here last week before I did my first split. I am just going into my second season. My colony in my vertical Lang hive made it through winter, but I needed to move it to a horizontal hive bc of not being able to lift boxes.

I did a split and put the queen and majority of the colony's frames in one horizontal Lang. I put 3 frames of brood (one with swarm cells) and 4 frames of honey in a sectioned off part of another horizontal Lang. I used frames that were heavy with workers).

The smaller group without the queen has dwindled significantly in numbers, which I'm guessing is due to drift. I knew I'd lose some, but was hoping the large number of workers I had would mitigate that, leaving enough in the smaller colony. I'm concerned there are too few in there now, though. Do you have any suggestions to help fix my mistake?


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Kassafrass said:


> I have your book and read the section you posted here last week before I did my first split. I am just going into my second season. My colony in my vertical Lang hive made it through winter, but I needed to move it to a horizontal hive bc of not being able to lift boxes.
> 
> I did a split and put the queen and majority of the colony's frames in one horizontal Lang. I put 3 frames of brood (one with swarm cells) and 4 frames of honey in a sectioned off part of another horizontal Lang. I used frames that were heavy with workers).
> 
> The smaller group without the queen has dwindled significantly in numbers, which I'm guessing is due to drift. I knew I'd lose some, but was hoping the large number of workers I had would mitigate that, leaving enough in the smaller colony. I'm concerned there are too few in there now, though. Do you have any suggestions to help fix my mistake?


Carefully (so not to move a queen by accident) take 2-3 brood frames from the stronger half and shake the bees off into the weaker half. 
These will be mostly young bees and will stay put.

Alternatively, just move 1-2 frames of closed and already hatching brood (again, must check for the queen to prevent accidental move).

7 frames in a weak split is too much. 
They can not cover all the frames and you, in fact, created a weak colony situation - low bee density/excessive volume.
Using follower board(s) condense them to only the brood frames (so that honey frames are outside of follower boards, but still accessible to the bees).
Your end goal is to create a very high density on those 3-4 brood frames inside the follower boards.
The frames outside of the follower board will be considered "kind of outside"; they will not spend energy conditioning the "outside" space.


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## Kassafrass (Mar 22, 2017)

Thank you- that makes total sense. I didn't think about that... I was thinking I was giving more than enough of what they would need, and that that was a good thing. Another lesson learned...


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Follower boards are your friend - use them.
Then you can have both - (1) plenty of resources bees can access and still (2) tight brood nest they can condition when in low numbers.


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## Marcus Yoder (May 21, 2016)

Thanks to everyone for there input
Marcus Yoder


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## Kassafrass (Mar 22, 2017)

GregV said:


> Follower boards are your friend - use them.
> Then you can have both - (1) plenty of resources bees can access and still (2) tight brood nest they can condition when in low numbers.


Thanks!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

> Do you have any suggestions to help fix my mistake?

You can shake more bees in the weak hive (new location) or you can reverse locations. Reversing locations has one danger, which is if the virgin queen is still in the process of orienting and mating she may return to the wrong hive.


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