How to split a beehive UK
What is splitting a beehive?
Splitting a beehive is the process of taking some brood (the young larvae of bees), honey, and bees from one established bee hive and forming a new colony from this. This is the basis of how you replicate and grow your apiary of bees.
When to split a beehive?
Most splits are done in the spring (April-May in the UK). This is when the colony are most susceptible to swarming and when they are experiencing a rapid growth in the number of worker bees.
It's the best time of year to split a hive as:
- The queen is laying a lot of worker eggs.
- There's plenty of natural forage for bees to eat (won't need to feed them as much).
- Lots of drones (male bees), so you are likely to get a queen mated.
- How is a new queen bee formed in the queen-less colony?
How is a new queen bee formed in the queen-less colony?
Emergency queen cells. The queen will be raised from emergency queen cells, bought on by the worker bees. These are formed from 1-2 days old larvae or eggs.
Swarm cells (queen cell). You've found a swarm cell (or two, or a lot more...) in your colony and would like to bring on a new queen.
Introduction of a mated queen or virgin. Introducing a mated queen is a great way to guarantee yourself new genetics (varroa hygienic or calm).
Why split a bee hive?
- To increase your bee hive colonies in your apiary.
- To help mitigate your bee hive from swarming.
Although it's not a surefire way to stop a colony of bees from swarming it can prove to be a real help. The reason for this is that you are taking a way a lot of frames of brood and workers from a colony and stunting their growth.
The colony will notice that the hive has become weakened and so is less likely to swarm. I have had it in the past when it hasn't stopped the established colony from swarming, however most of the time it does. If you suspect a colony is about to swarm I'd suggest doing a significant split from, say 4-5 frames of brood and bees.
Why is it called a bee hive split?
It's called a split as this is in essence what you are doing; splitting the hive. Although not usually a 1:1 colony split, you are splitting off a section of a colony to reproduce the colonies.
How to split a beehive?
1. Check if you can split the colony.
- Find eggs or queen.
- Assess the hive health.
Typically it's a good idea to find the queen in the colony you are looking to split from. Some people will say that you don't need to do this, however, in my opinion, it's comforting to know which hive is queen-less and which is queen-rite (has the queen present).
Once you've found the queen, you can either pin her back with a 'crown of thorns' or, simply take note of which frame she is on (remember she can and will move to other frames, so move fast).
2. Split the hive.
Choose which size of split you would like to do.
The smallest split I'll do:
- One frame of brood.
- One frame of food.
- A generous shaking of bees.
Largest split I'll do:
- Half the colony size of the existing colony. Taking 3-4 frames of brood.
- A few a frames of food
- A few bees shaken into the box.
Assess which frames to take. This frame shown is a perfect frame to shake off into a split. Packed with workers and nurse bees.
3. Relocate the split and feed.
