First Full Inspection of 2011 and Split the Hive

The daytime temps have been in the upper 50s to mid 70s but the nights can be still quite cool. Have been feeding fondant since late January. With today in the 60s I planned to do my first full inspection to see how the bees are doing after the winter.

I knew that I would split the hive this spring for a number of reasons but mainly for the learning experience instead of installing another package of bees. The easiest way to split a hive is to move brood and introduce a new queen but as I am so pleased with my Russian bees I decided to let them make their own queen. You do this by moving frames containing eggs, larvae and capped brood along with food. The bees will quickly figure out they are without a queen and decide which of the eggs or young larvae is to be the new queen.

With not having been in the hive since last fall, I wasn't sure what to expect with this being my first year with my one hive. So, I decided to reserve the decision to split once I checked in on the bees. Boy, did I receive a very pleasant surprise when I opened the hive today!

The hive had more bees than I was expecting with lots of brood AND capped honey!

Russian bees tend to increase hive population a bit later than other bees yet the first frame I pulled out was heavy with nectar and capped honey. This frame shown here is full of brood and other frames were just as lovely with drone cells along the bottom.

The top box of the 3 medium supers had 2.5 frames full of pollen and nectar and 3.5 frames of brood!


The queen was easily spotted in the middle box which contained as many frames of pollen, nectar, capped honey and brood. While she is not in this picture, just admire that awesome brood pattern!

With so many good things going on in the hive, I decided the time was right to make the split today! I moved over 2 frames of brood (containing more eggs and larvae than capped brood) along with a full frame of food from the top box of the donor hive (I didn't touch the middle box that contained the queen.) I rounded out the 5-frame nuc box with an empty from on each side that is not yet drawn out as honeycomb.

In the donor hive, I slid the frames together and added empty frames to the outside. Then I rotated the boxes, bringing the empty bottom box up to the top.

The bees in the nuc will quickly figure out there is no queen. They will decide which egg or young larvae will be the new queen and will feed her royal jelly. In 16 days she will hatch - I estimate that will be around April 4th. It could take another 5-7 days before she is mated and begins to lay her eggs. Twenty-one days later, (I am estimating around April 30th) her first brood will emerge and the new hive will start to grow and forage and make honey.

I sat for some time today watching the nuc as bees would leave. I am expecting some to return to the donor hive as they know that hive to be home. Soon, the house bees in the nuc will become forager bees and will learn that this new location is home. But today I did observe a few foragers leave and return to the nuc. I am excited about this new hive on so many levels!