# Swarm prevention split, move hives?



## Doreen78 (Feb 25, 2016)

Alright, checked the hive today, and found multiple queen cells. 3-4 capped, and several more in various stages of development. So I braved a split. I got really lucky and found the queen on the third frame I checked. Put her in the new box along with a frame of honey and a couple more frames of brood (made sure those were frames without queen cells). The medium that had been on the hive had 5 full frames with open nectar. One of the foundationless frames was being drawn out, as well! I divided up the resources between the two hives. I now have 2 hives, one with the old queen and the other with multiple queen cells, capped and uncapped. I did reduce the entrance on the new hive to a single bee space, read that doing that for the first 24 hours would make them less prone to absconding. So now I wait? Inspect the new hive with the old queen in a week to see how things are progressing, and make sure I didn't miss any queen cells? Leave the old hive alone for a while? The new hive is just 4 feet or so away from the old hive, do I need to switch the two so foragers will return to the new hive? I did shake a frame of nurse bees into the new hive to hopefully not reduce population too much. Thoughts?


----------



## SouthTexasJohn (Mar 16, 2015)

Was this all done from a single deep and a medium? Is the old queen in a nuc? I would leave them along for a while just like you said. Just be sure that each hive has enough nurse bees to cover the brood that they have. If you have to, you can switch location so that the other hives gets more foragers but keep the brood covered and they will make their own foragers.


----------



## Doreen78 (Feb 25, 2016)

It was a single deep and a medium. The deep had all 10 frames drawn out and full of bees. The medium had 5 frames with foundation almost fully drawn out, and one of the foundationless frames was about halfway drawn. The old queen is in a 10 frame deep/medium configuration. That's what I had available. I hope that's ok? I figured whatever foragers are out right now will return to the old hive, that's why I shook an extra frame of nurse bees into the new hive. I tried to split resources evenly. Wondering whether feeding would be necessary?


----------



## wvbeeguy (Feb 20, 2011)

Sounds like you covered it well, now you have to wait while the parent colony makes a new queen and she starts laying- around 30 days or so. Tough to be patient but not mcuh else to do at this point.


----------



## SouthTexasJohn (Mar 16, 2015)

You should not need to feed if they have some stores. They also should be bringing in pollen and nectar. At least they are here in my neck of the woods. As wvbeeguy said, be patient. Leave they alone for a month and you will get one of these without the dot.


----------



## Doreen78 (Feb 25, 2016)

Thanks everyone! Would there be any need to check the new split with the old queen sooner, or can I just let them do their thing for the next few weeks, too?


----------



## wvbeeguy (Feb 20, 2011)

watch the box with old queen after 10-12 days, if she has plenty of room to lay she will fill one box fairly quickly. In prep for swarm they slowed her feeding down and her egg laying followed - but will ramp up quickly


----------



## Doreen78 (Feb 25, 2016)

wvbeeguy said:


> watch the box with old queen after 10-12 days, if she has plenty of room to lay she will fill one box fairly quickly. In prep for swarm they slowed her feeding down and her egg laying followed - but will ramp up quickly


Thanks, I'll do that.

Lots of orientation flights at both hives the past couple of days. Looking good so far.


----------

