# Walk away Splits



## lowhog

Please bare with me after 14 beers. I opened my two over wintered hives today for the third time this year that were bursting with bee's. I found young drones, Capped brood, plenty of larvae in all stages and good laying patterns. Plenty of pollen, honey from pussy willow. My problem was I could not see eggs clear. My 61 year old eyes suck. I split both hive with = amount of everything I could see and placed them both in the original hive location. Finding local queens around here seems to be a problem. I like the genetics I have anyway. ? is do they need day old eggs to make a queen?


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## RayMarler

What you did should work fine.
They need eggs or up to 2 day old larva.


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## Riverderwent

lowhog said:


> My 61 year old eyes suck.


My 61 year old eyes do too. I use a pair of 3 or 3½ power reading glasses if I know I'm going to be looking for eggs and early instar brood. It works well for me. Ray's advice above is spot on.


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## RayMarler

You set the boxes side by side on the original stand location, so the box that gets the most bees over the next few days to a week will be the box with the queen. It might need a super or another box. 

The other box, it'll be the one making queens, check it in 7-10 days for queen cells, make more splits if you want at that time, or destroy all the smaller cells leaving just one or two or three of the best largest looking ones. Then leave it alone for 2-3 weeks before checking for eggs/larva.


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## lowhog

Ray Thanks for the information.


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## Mr.Beeman

lowhog said:


> Please bare with me after 14 beers. I opened my two over wintered hives today for the third time this year that were bursting with bee's. I found young drones, Capped brood, plenty of larvae in all stages and good laying patterns. Plenty of pollen, honey from pussy willow. My problem was I could not see eggs clear. My 61 year old eyes suck. I split both hive with = amount of everything I could see and placed them both in the original hive location. Finding local queens around here seems to be a problem. I like the genetics I have anyway. ? is do they need day old eggs to make a queen?


You couldn't see because of the 14 beers you consumed. Your eyes are just fine sober! lol
Check the hive in three days. You should see queen cells being built. If not, swap a frame from the queen right hive that does have eggs. Another thing you might consider is checking into the local AA.... lol


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## lowhog

Mr.Beeman said:


> You couldn't see because of the 14 beers you consumed. Your eyes are just fine sober! lol
> Check the hive in three days. You should see queen cells being built. If not, swap a frame from the queen right hive that does have eggs. Another thing you might consider is checking into the local AA.... lol


Where is the like button on this forum LOL! I'll check back sober in a few days and tell you what I see.


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## enjambres

I have 66 year old eyes, and I keep a small magnifying glass on a lanyard around my neck (outside of my veil) when I'm looking for eggs or young larvae. It stays tucked into the breast pocket of my jacket when I'm not using it. I got it at a drug store and I don't think I paid more than 8 bucks for it. Works like a charm.

Enj.


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## lowhog

Seems like all the foragers are coming and going equally on all hives so far today any who.


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## Pete O

At 70, I find that a magnifying glass helps greatly. Without one, my youthful wife of 62 can still see eggs. Spend $2 for a glass!


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## NewbeeInNH

I'm getting sidetracked wondering how someone can down 14 beers and still spell. At 61. I'm thinking it was a typo. 

Going to the eye dr. for the first time this week, can't wait, because I don't even try looking for eggs. They all look like sunglare to me. Is that a reflection or could there be something white down there? Still have to try the magnifying glass trick, but holding the frame with 2 hands seems like a juggling act.

Altho at 14 beers, you'd probably stop caring if those are eggs or not.


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## hilreal

Go to Amazon.com and order a pair of safety bifocal glasses with yellow tint lenses. The tint significantly increases the contrast and makes seeing eggs much easier. I get the 2.5-3.0 diopter. http://www.amazon.com/Bifocal-Safet...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00


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## NewbeeInNH

Bifocal magnifiers is a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.


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## dtrooster

Yep, all my sunglasses have a cheater lens on the bottom. You can't do if you can't see


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## Dunkel

Looking for pickled eggs? I have a hard time through certain veils. A magnifying glass helps me. Tried the reading glasses, they helped seeing the eggs. The rest of the time I felt like I had drank 14 beers.


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## lowhog

Hilreal I put a pair of those in the Amazon cart. I always let my wife finish the order so we get free shipping. Yikes! The free shipping Minimum when up! Those glasses will cost me a bunch after she's done.:scratch:


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## enjambres

@Newbeein NH:

If you wind up getting glasses, may I suggest getting a good anti-reflective coating, even though it costs more? I wear glasses all the time, using Varilux lenses (ones with continuous focus instead of tri- or bi-focals.) Last December, when I got new glasses I bit the bullet and added Crizal to the already-shocking price and this spring I am having far less difficulty seeing down into the cells, even though my prescription didn't change significantly. The difference is the anti-reflective coating on the lenses. I think older eyes don't handle glare as well.

Enj.


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## AthensM50

So I was going to start a thread.....but It falls with this title....

Do we have any type of statistics on how often these walk away splits work?.....if you have either Queen Cells and/or Fresh eggs....what percentage works and what are the percentage that this fails?

I know someone that swears by this....but they are always looking for a Queen!!!!


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## SmokeEater2

enjambres said:


> @Newbeein NH:
> 
> If you wind up getting glasses, may I suggest getting a good anti-reflective coating, even though it costs more? I wear glasses all the time, using Varilux lenses (ones with continuous focus instead of tri- or bi-focals.) Last December, when I got new glasses I bit the bullet and added Crizal to the already-shocking price and this spring I am having far less difficulty seeing down into the cells, even though my prescription didn't change significantly. The difference is the anti-reflective coating on the lenses. I think older eyes don't handle glare as well.
> 
> Enj.



Another vote for Crizal coated lenses! They really do help cutting the glare which makes eggs easier to spot. I did a 5 frame split about 20 minutes ago and I also noticed that the black plastic foundation helps the eggs stand out too.


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## NewbeeInNH

Thanks for that info, enj!


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## NewbeeInNH

AthensM50 said:


> Do we have any type of statistics on how often these walk away splits work?.....if you have either Queen Cells and/or Fresh eggs....what percentage works and what are the percentage that this fails?


Well, I can tell you from my experience last summer, out of 3 hives I ended up with 11. Some were swarm cells, a couple were virgin queens I happened to notice, some were walk-away splits I intentionally created from eggs/larvae. I've heard people talk about failure rates, queens not coming back, etc., but 100% of mine requeened successfully.


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## enjambres

The one time I tried a home-brewed version of a walk-away split it turned into a disaster, though I did, eventually, wind up with with a new queen, while keeping my old one, as well, in a different colony. But, as usual, my bees paid a steep price for my lack of experience. It was probably cluelessness more than anything else, but the drama of it put me completely off that method. Now I use Snelgrove boards which I like much better.

If you're asking about getting a cell drawn and a virgin queen mated and safely back and laying: Last summer I started twelve splits and with thirteen total tries (one took two attempts) I got twelve swarm- or emergency- cell queens cooked up, mated and established in their own colonies, and even more importantly, all survived the winter, even though I gave away half of them last summer. 

It's quite astounding that bees can do this sort of thing so well. I feel like I'm just a bit player - the bees have got this all figured out. I just need to stay (mostly) out of the way once I set the stage.

Enj.


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## lowhog

Just a update. The two queenless hives raised two very good laying queens. The vs tinted glasses that were recommended work well also. All is well Thank You all!


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