By: David MacFawn
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of BEEKeeping Your First Three Years
Splitting colonies is one method to control swarming. Walk-away splits (where you make sure each split half contains less than three-day-old larvae, honey, split raise another queen), or installing queen cells or a mated queen are all ways to split a colony for a colony increase. Demaree is another technique to simulate a split but keep all the worker bees in the same hive. If looking for the queen, she is usually found on a frame with freshly laid eggs.
In the Columbia, South Carolina area, colonies can often be split at the end of February/ first of March at the earliest. Adding empty supers with frames will not relieve the congestion in the brood nest that usually causes swarming. Frames with brood and bees need to be removed in the congested brood nest. If colonies are fed sugar syrup mid to the end of January, most colonies will be ready to split from the end of February to the first of March at the earliest (approximately two brood cycles). Usually, only healthy colonies that are well provisioned with honey and pollen build up sufficiently to split. The maples bloom end of January to the first of February in the Columbia area. The maples are considered a major pollen source and a minor nectar source. The nectar flow usually starts around the first of April and continues through the first part of June in this region.
Figure 1. Laying worker frame. (Photo courtesy Mark Sweatman)
If a walk-away split is done at the end of February, it takes approximately three weeks to raise a queen, and a week or so to mate and start laying, and another three weeks for the first workers to emerge. This puts the first workers emerging mid-April with the nectar flow starting around the first of April. Another approximately three weeks are required for the house worker bees to mature into field bees putting the nectar gathering field bees for the walk-away split being ready first to mid-May. The nectar flow is over usually around the first of June, so the walk-away split has missed most of the Spring nectar flow. This means a walk-away split will need to be fed during the Summer dearth that starts mid-June and runs through around the first of August. Unless the colony is taken to cotton for nectar that blooms mid-July through September or Sourwood bloom in the higher mountain elevations. It should be noted that sometimes an inferior queen may result from a walk-away split. A walk-away split queen can be evaluated and replaced if this occurs. A walk-away split may be required in South Carolina at the end of February due to a lack of mated queen availability. The split-half with the original queen should continue to build up properly and often you will get a reasonable honey crop.
Figure 2. Laying worker closeup. (Photo courtesy Mark Sweatman.)
When splitting a colony, I usually do not find the queen. I make sure both split halves have plenty of honey, pollen, and less than three-day-old larvae. This results in the split that does not have the old queen to start raising a queen and the worker brood from the original queen will emerge in approximately one to two weeks. The split-half without worker brood in approximately two weeks will be the queenless split. It takes a lot of time to find queens. Hence, I minimize my labor costs. The colony should be monitored for laying worker activity. Usually, you have three to six weeks before a laying worker occurs.
One to two days after splitting, queen cell(s) can be installed in both splits. Queen cells are much cheaper than mated queens. This results in an approximate one week head start on a walk-away split. A mated queen can also be installed in the split-half that does not have brood after approximately 1 ½ weeks.
Whether you do a walk-away split or use queen cells or mated queen or a Demaree depends on what your strategy is. A walk-away split and queen cells can be used to get half your genetics from the local area if you are interested in local area genetics. A mated queen, if not raised from local colonies, can be used to replace 100% of your colony genes from the queen mated area of the mated queen. A Demaree is when all the brood in the bottom brood chamber is moved above a queen excluder and a super with frames. The queen is left on a frame of drawn comb in the bottom brood chamber. In a week to ten days, the brood above the queen excluder is checked for queen cells and the queen cells are destroyed to inhibit swarming. The colony believes it has swarmed and you have retained all your field bees for honey production. After several weeks the Demaree colony can be recombined.
Figure 3. A mated queen in a Benton queen cage. (Photo courtesy David MacFawn.)
The first of June is also an excellent time to split colonies. There are a lot of bees available right after the nectar flow and mated queens and queen cells are available. One of the issues is getting the colony to draw out comb over the Summer dearth. Often the colony will need to be put on cotton in mid-July or taken to the mountains for the sourwood flow. It should be noted that drawn comb, especially in the brood chamber, improves overwintering success. Drawn comb is required to ensure the cluster is in the bottom of the hive with plenty of honey and pollen going into Winter. If the colony does not draw out the comb after a June split, the brood nest will remain in the hive areas where the drawn comb occurs. This may be a feed chamber super or honey super. Feeding sugar syrup rarely enhances drawing out comb. Normally a nectar flow is required. The colony normally needs to have about 80% comb utilization before they draw out more comb.
After splitting, the split can be moved three to five miles away or left in the original yard. Moving the split works better since the field bees will stay with the moved split. If the split is left in the original yard, an extra frame of bees and brood should be placed in the split. Often it is better to locate the split directly next to or in front of the original location to minimize losing field bees in the split.
A frame of various age bees is best to place in both half splits. This will ensure that you do not have all the same age workers and minimizes requiring to need a lot of nurse bees initially.
Figure 4. Festooning chain/drawing out comb. (Photo courtesy David MacFawn.)
Utilizing swarm cells to place in each split half may also be considered. This will shorten your queen development time by about a week or so. However, some beekeepers believe utilizing swarm cells propagates swarm tendencies. It should also be noted that leaving swarm cells in the half with the original queen may result in a swarm being issued from that split half.
Figure 5. A frame of various age brood. (Photo courtesy David MacFawn.)
There are several ways to avoid swarming. Making splits and utilizing a walk-away split, queen cells, mated queen, or swarm cells all have their benefits. Demaree may also be utilized to simulate a swarm condition in the colony and save all your bees for honey production. Moving the split three to five miles away from the original bee yard works best. Whether you split or not gets back to what your needs and strategy are. If you need to make increases due to losses, splitting may be the way to go. However, if you want to make a honey crop, then Demaree may be the way to go.
Figure 6. Swarm cells on the bottom of a frame. (Photo courtesy Kathy Carpineto.)
David MacFawn is an Eastern Apiculture Society Master Beekeeper and a North Carolina Master Craftsman beekeeper living in the Columbia, South Carolina, area. He has his third book being published in January 2021, Applied Beekeeping in the United States. He is the author of two other books, https://outskirtspress.com/BeekeepingTipsandTechniquesfortheSoutheastUnitedStatesBeekeepingFinance and https://outskirtspress.com/gettingthebestfromyourbees.
