# March madness Splits in Georgia? Or is it ok?



## Michael Vendryes (Jul 23, 2014)

Against my friends advice, I split one of my hives yesterday, it's was a double broad box I had feed heavily in the fall, it still had a lot of feed in the comb. There was a lot of drone cells but no queen cells. I went though all the frames and couldn't find the queen, so I decided to devide the young eggs 50/50 between boxes in the hope that one of the hives without the queen whould make a queen. 

Did I screw up? What should I do now? 

Thanks

Michael


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## Barhopper (Mar 5, 2015)

Wait. I did the same 4 weeks ago. Had a hive that was getting to hot for me so I did what you did. The only thing I did was move the queen from the original hive location. It remains to be seen if I raised another hot queen like the mother queen. Great honey makers but not so good temperament.


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## johnmcda (Aug 10, 2015)

That's a walk away split - doesn't matter which box the queen is in. They'll be fine. I did a split few days ago and I am on the west side of Atlanta. You basically made an artificial swarm. Leave them alone, make sure they have room to store nectar, add a super if needed.


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## rwlaw (May 4, 2009)

"Did I screw up?" 
You'll find out in 30 days
"What do I do now"
Go into the hives in 7 to 10 days and find out which one has the queen. And make sure the other has queen cells.


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## dcnylund (May 28, 2015)

I'm just starting to see some drone comb. If the split is successful, will there be enough drones to have a properly mated queen at this time?


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## Michael Vendryes (Jul 23, 2014)

johnmcda said:


> That's a walk away split - doesn't matter which box the queen is in. They'll be fine. I did a split few days ago and I am on the west side of Atlanta. You basically made an artificial swarm. Leave them alone, make sure they have room to store nectar, add a super if needed.


Thanks for responding, I've had some tragic failures in the past, that really emotionally got up set about, I hate the fact that I may have harmed them, but after I had a swarm last year I wanted to get ahead on it, so it's good to have the feed back.


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## Eikel (Mar 12, 2014)

You southern beeks are killing me with all the split and swarm activity.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

dcnylund said:


> I'm just starting to see some drone comb. If the split is successful, will there be enough drones to have a properly mated queen at this time?


This would be my only concern. You may be pushing the edge of the envelope but....you'll never know if you don't try.


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## johnmcda (Aug 10, 2015)

I've got drones all over the hives. I don't think you'll have a problem.


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## dcnylund (May 28, 2015)

I just checked my hives. A healthy amount of drone comb and quite of few drones in the hive. Should be no problem. What a difference a couple of weeks makes.


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## Michael Vendryes (Jul 23, 2014)

beemandan said:


> This would be my only concern. You may be pushing the edge of the envelope but....you'll never know if you don't try.


Your right that's a valid point, I have so many drone cells they were stuck between the two brood boxes unfortunately I ended up killing quite a few has I pulled the frames out they were stuck to the bottom of the frames and the tops of the frames below. 2 late now I guess, i'll check on them next Saturday and hope for the best, I have 3 more splits to do, so I'll stagger them until next week. Oh and I did see a number of new drones hatched out alread.


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## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

I'm west of yall on the I20 AL line. I have plenty of drones. Don't know that they are flying but dang sure crawling. The red maple flow has been outstanding. The pears, plums and apricots are just blooming as are the redbuds.
I removed the queen from a strong hive with enough frames of brood to call it a split instead of a nuc today. I intend to use the old hive to care for a few grafts. Madness? Maybe.. I kinda doubt it. We still have some more cold weather coming. Folks call it blackberry winter. Happens every year. I am betting that the bees will do just fine.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Michael Vendryes said:


> I did see a number of new drones hatched out alread.


This is the important test. What's happening in your hive is a pretty good indication of what's happening in the bee colonies around you. If you have emerged drones....your new queen will likely find plenty from surrounding colonies to mate with.


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## tulsafarmer (Feb 28, 2016)

Folks call it blackberry winter. Happens every year. 

Yes, It has gotten me twice! The queens have emerged and its time for those mating flights. Then the cold front comes in and they don't go out and mate.


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## BradC (Apr 4, 2015)

I am having this dilemma myself. I went into winter making about 6 new supers for my hives. At the rate I am going I am SHORT! I had a look at my strongest hive this evening only into top as it was getting dark and with rain coming in this weekend (my days off). My feeder box had a LOT of bees hanging out in it. The box that i added last weekend with 2 combed frames around one foundationless. The remaining frames are 2 wax foundation with partial combs and 3 plastic foundations with wax i melted on the frames. The bees have combed 75% of the foundationless frame, filled both combed frames full of nectar (haven't been feeding this hive) started combing the sides facing the combed frames AND putting nectar in these. All 8 frames have a lot of bees on them. I can't tell if they are combing the partial waxed foundation or chewing it of for other uses. The other boxes were mostly brood last weekend. Should I be worried about this one swarming? I didn't see any swarm cells last weekend either. I guess I should find time to build some more boxes...


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