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Making a Fall Split

1 Make a decision by the end of July whether you will split your colony ornot. If you want your hive to produce its own queen, begin right away.If you want to introduce a new queen, order one right away and itshould arrive within a week after orderering.

2 Before you ake your split, check the health of your colony. Make sureyour colony is full of bees and that there are drones. !he presence ofdrones in your hive is a good indication that there are drones elsewhereto fertili"e a new queen.

# Before you open the hive to ake your split ake sure you have on yourveil and gloves. $ight your s oker as a precaution, but you will not bes oking your bees today. %ou will be entering your hive without s oke.

& '(%)* Its is easier to locate the queen if you need to.+ !he bees that are on the brood fra es will ostly bee nurse bees which

are necessary to raise a new queen or take care of e erging brood.If you s oke your bees, the s oke will drive the nurse bees away.- Before you open the hive ake sure you have ready a nuc with e pty

fra es or a super with at least five e pty fra es top botto andfollower board.

/repare to open the hive during the war est ti e of the day when ost of the workers will be out foraging.

10 Make sure there are very few distractions around as you prepare to openyour hive. pproach the hive quietly and with confidence. Make no

erky ove ents and ove slowly. 3tand by your hive for awhile soyour bees can beco e reacquainted with your presence.

11 'I!(45! 3M467, carefully open your hive. 4pen and listen to the hu inthe hive. If the hive sounds in balance, go through the fra es and

ake a ental note about the location of honey, pollen, newly laideggs, larva, and sealed brood.

12 fter quickly e8a ining the hive go back and pull the following and placein your nuc bo89

1# one fra e that has so e fresh day old eggs and all the attached nursebees. May also contain so e honey and pollen

1& two fra es of larva and sealed brood and all attached nurse bees. Mayalso contain so e honey and pollen

1* one fra e of ostly honey :or honey and pollen;1+ one e pty fra e :this could be an e pty brood fra e or a fra e withstrip;.

1 take a fra e of bees that are full of nurse bees and shake the intoyour nuc bo8.

1- !he order of the fra es in your nuc should be honey fra e, fra e witheggs, two fra es with brood, e pty fra e.

120 $ocate your nuc in a convenient place in your yard. Most of the bees in

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your new nuc will not leave and return to the original location of yourhive because they are nurse bees and have not oriented the selvesto the outside world yet.

21 '( ! B45! !(7 <577=)22 If you want the queen to re ain with your original hive, you will need

to locate her and ake sure she does not go into the nuc. !his is

ost i portant if you are going to introduce a new queen. If you areintroducing a purchased queen, introduce her as if it were a package./uncture a whole in the candy and let the queen and her attendantseat their way out.

2# If you want your hive to ake its own queen, it does not atter if youlocate the queen because either your nuc or the original hive will

ake a new queen as long as there are eggs present.2& (4' >4 I 6=4' I? !(7 3/$I! I3 '4@6I=A 4@ =4!)

2* If you are introducing a new queen, check the hive in three days to seeif the queen has been released. If she has, re ove the cage andclose the hive for a week. fter a week open the hive and check fornew eggs.

2+ I your hive is aking its own queen, open the bo8 three days after youade a split and quickly locate the fra e with eggs and see if there

is a queen cell. If there is, quietly close the hive and don t open forthirty days. t the end of #0 days check for eggs)

27 '( ! I? !(7 3/$I! >I>= ! '4@6) @eunite the nuc with the originalcolony.