|
Generally, when the phrase ‘making
splits’
comes up, the image of increasing one’s beekeeping
holdings is featured. That is, making two or more
colonies from a single parent. That is because
splitting a colony is the easiest and least
expensive way to increase the number of colonies
owned. But there are other reasons to split a
colony, and, there are nearly as many ways to split
one as there are colonies to split.
The
overall principle in making a split is to start with
a large, healthy, populous colony (or colonies). The
goal is to remove ‘some’ uncapped brood, ‘some’
honey and pollen resources to a new box, or two, to
start a new colony. A new queen may, or may not be
added. The question most often asked is “How much is
‘some’?” Usually, you do not want to reduce the
parent colony to less than half its resources so it
can continue to keep pace with the season. You may
need to take bees, brood or food from more than one
parent to successfully build a new split. Splits,
then, should have enough nurse bees to care for the
brood, some foragers to gather resources, sealed
brood for immediate colony expansion, younger brood
for continued expansion and some resources for
immediate consumption.
Splits can be made to ‘make increase’, or for other
reasons. Popular swarm control/prevention measures
include splitting a large colony to allow room for
expansion, and to relieve brood nest congestion.
Often the ‘new’ colony is rejoined to the parent
when the swarming urge is over so the actual number
of colonies does not increase. One technique used to
reduce tracheal mite infestation is to divide a
colony later in the season, dispatching the older,
infested bees, and overwintering the younger, less
infested bees. There are few things that are as
fulfilling as creating a new colony, especially if
it is ‘free’, and you are the one who made it
happen. Splits enable both to occur. |
