# How many drones needed to split hive?



## Hibs06 (Jun 13, 2016)

I went into my hive last weekend to see how many drones I could spot in it's two brood boxes. Unfortunately I only found around 10 which I'm guessing isn't enough to split? How many drones (roughly) should I be seeing in order to split?

PS. I wanted to kick myself because as I pulled the frames up from the top brood box they were stuck to the bottom frames and almost all the comb on the frames where they were stuck was drone brood ready to emerge in a week or so. Killed a lot of mature drones accidentally.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

If you have drones and it's warm enough, you can split. Your 10 drones shouldn't be mating your queen anywyas ( never say never right) The point is that if you have them it's a safe bet that other hives in the area have them as well. with that said, waiting a couple weeks wont hurt unless they are about to split themselves anyways


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## rkereid (Dec 20, 2009)

Hibs06 said:


> How many drones (roughly) should I be seeing in order to split?


You don't need any drones to do a split. You need bees, brood, a way to make a queen, and a nutrition source. 

If you are raising a queen or installing a virgin queen, you will need mature drones and good weather.


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## bison (Apr 27, 2011)

I'm just south of you in Marin - it's awfully close to the time you can split a strong hive. As you saw, drones are starting to appear and there will be more in a couple of weeks when your new queen is out on her mating flights. Make sure the hive you want to split has plenty of bees (at least 7 or so frames of bees) and plenty of stores of honey and pollen for both the mother hive and the split. Rain is coming next week so might not be the best time to split.


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## ToeOfDog (Sep 25, 2013)

Your queen will mate with someone elses drone so how many you have is irrelevant. The idea is if you have them others have them.

Many try to eliminate as much drone comb as possible from the brood nest. When you do that the bees will either rework worker foundation into drone cells or stick drone cells between the top bar of the first brood box and the bottom bar of the second. Putting a foundationless frame in the brood box during March in postion #2 will cut down on this. They will pull it as drone comb and after swarm season they will fill it with honey.


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## davel (Jan 29, 2011)

If you are seeing drones then there are plenty more about to emerge. Make your split. By the time your split raises a queen and she goes on a mating flight there will be plenty of drones available, however, mating flights are weather dependent as well as drone dependent.
Good luck!


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## Hibs06 (Jun 13, 2016)

Well, it's a good thing I decided to split my hive this last Sunday after all. I went in and pulled the first few frames and low and behold after about frame 4 I had discovered around 5-6 queen cells either sealed shut or with larvae and almost sealed shut. I pulled them and split the hive, looks like just in time.


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