Overwintered nucs, Splits, Summer nucs

[Patrick Laslett]

Hi All,

I have more beekeepers offering overwintered nucs since my last email. 

Guildford, Brighton, and Bristol can be added to the list of Somerset, Sussex, Kent, Cheshire, Liverpool, Wales, Shropshire, Essex, and Hampshire.

Splits. What is a split? And why do you do it? 

In a few days time, maybe in a week or two, not only will the weather have changed and be considerably warmer than it is now but the nature of our colonies will have changed too. The overwintered bees that have been holding the fort during the winter months will have largely been replaced by a new generation of bees. The queen will be laying more eggs and in some cases our bees may move into swarm mode. How can we prevent an early swarm leaving our hives? One way is to split the colony.

Once the bees show signs that they have moved into swarm mode it is hard to keep the colony intact and prevent them swarming. Just one egg in one queen cup is your last chance saloon. Once there are many eggs in many queen cups the game is over for keeping all of that colony in one box without some kind of swarm prevention procedure. Taking the queen and half of the brood out of the box and putting them into another box will prevent you losing that queen and you will have 'split' your colony.

The half with the queen in will build up their numbers again. (Some beekeepers offer these 'splits' to help other beekeepers)

The other half of the colony without the queen will make queen cells and depending on what kind of beekeeping you do, you will joyfully use those queen cells, or just as joyfully destroy them all. 

Those that use the queen cells will likely be making 'Summer nucs' and this year in particular summer nucs could be in great demand. 

Happy beekeeping!

Yours,

Patrick