# Walk away split....timing?



## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

Bienenstock said:


> What is the best time of year to execute a successful walk away split?


Now, where you are. Give them plenty of bees. Keep entrances small.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>What is the best time of year to execute a successful walk away split?

Two weeks before the main flow.


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

Michael Bush said:


> Two weeks before the main flow.


I follow the reasoning to reduce the brood burden, and I respect your insight, but I'm leary of small splits and small hive beetles in our location. I don't want to form large splits and thereby reduce the population of production hives going into the main flow. I would rather form robust summer splits during our summer dearth and let them beef up on our fall aster and goldenrod. We're just going to have to disagree to disagree.


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## ChuckReburn (Dec 17, 2013)

For the bees, the best time would be when they are ready to form queen cells which in the Austin area is well before the main flow (and during the flow if you let them get crowded). 

If you looking at splitting a double deep busting with bees after supers are pulled that's a lot different than pulling a small nuc out.

We're going into a dearth right now so the quality of queens you could raise (and get mated) becomes an issue. Robbing may also be an issue. 

The best timing for you may be after you've successfully made a few splits with mated queens. In theory, walk away splits are easy but I see them fail frequently - many times the failure could have been avoided with that $20-$30 expense.


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