Requeening/Split?

[Steel Tiger]

 I'm ready to order a Carniolan queen to replace my Buckfast queen. Right now the Buckfast have two deeps full of brood and two mediums full of honey. I'm thinking of buying two queens and splitting the hive, checkerboarding the brood with another deep and adding an empty medium above the full medium. Is it too late in the season for the hives to build back up to full strength?

[biggraham610]

I certainly wouldnt think so with bred queens, just my opinion. I will let the heavyweights with more experience weigh in. Good Luck Tiger. G :chop:

[Steel Tiger]

 I'm pretty sure I don't have anything to worry about. I added a deep about 2 or 3 weeks ago and all 10 empty frames are drawn and filled with brood. Plus they drawn the comb in the supers.
 I'm seriously considering taking the Buckfast queen and giving her two frames of brood and putting her out in the woods away from... pretty much everything. I could pull a frame or two of brood from my other hive as well. A single deep and 2 mediums should give them plenty of room to expand and store enough for winter. I have 12 days to decide, that's when my new queens are due to arrive.
 Maybe next year I could work on lowering their aggressiveness by getting rid of the queen then and letting them raise a new one. Once the new queen starts laying, do it again. Perhaps in a few generations, whatever is making them so aggressive will be bred out from mating with the local bees.
 I just find it hard to kill something that's so productive.

 I went out today to finally finish mowing... suited up this time. I made the first pass, about 3 feet in front of the hive, and got chased by a couple bees. They chased me almost all the way around the field. I made the second pass about 7 feet in front of them, now there was a cloud of bees at the entrance and a lot of them went after me.
 The third pass didn't seem to upset them as much. That was about 10 feet in front of them.

[OldMech]

Did you ask your provider about the temperament of the queens you ordered? His bees in general?   I often hear about Buckfast or Russians, or other specific lines of bees that are just TOO aggressive..   I have found that queens from the same genetics but different lines can be very different in temperament. I also have some difficulty believing any line is "pure" due the the nature of mating queens. 
   I mow and weed eat around my hives with no gear, and I usually work the hives with no gear, because I work pretty hard to remove aggressiveness. You can do it too.   I have 42 hives at this moment.
   Splitting this time of year depends on where you live and the weather for the rest of the summer and fall. If you have a moderate flow the bees will be able to rebuild, feeding them will be helpful, and maybe mandatory if you do not have a good flow between now and winter.
    I would concentrate on the hive or hives you have, do the best you can for them, and make plans to increase in the spring when they will have the best chance if the weather does not cooperate.
   If you have 4 minutes you need to waste go to the link, watch the vid at the bottom... mowing around my hives.

   http://outyard.weebly.com/honeybee-care.html

[Steel Tiger]

Did you ask your provider about the temperament of the queens you ordered? His bees in general?   I often hear about Buckfast or Russians, or other specific lines of bees that are just TOO aggressive..   I have found that queens from the same genetics but different lines can be very different in temperament. I also have some difficulty believing any line is "pure" due the the nature of mating queens.  
   I mow and weed eat around my hives with no gear, and I usually work the hives with no gear, because I work pretty hard to remove aggressiveness. You can do it too.   I have 42 hives at this moment.
   Splitting this time of year depends on where you live and the weather for the rest of the summer and fall. If you have a moderate flow the bees will be able to rebuild, feeding them will be helpful, and maybe mandatory if you do not have a good flow between now and winter.
    I would concentrate on the hive or hives you have, do the best you can for them, and make plans to increase in the spring when they will have the best chance if the weather does not cooperate.
   If you have 4 minutes you need to waste go to the link, watch the vid at the bottom... mowing around my hives.

   http://outyard.weebly.com/honeybee-care.html

 I've mowed many times around the hives. These Buckfast are new. I got them about two months ago. I've noticed that when I went into the hive that they seemed a bit aggressive.  I figured it may have been the bees that came in the package that were aggressive and that the hive would calm down once they die out. I was wrong and paid for it.
 The hive next to them are Italians. They may have been alarmed by the mower and one or two came at me, but by no means did a cloud of bees appear at the entrance. Most just went on their merry way.
 The queens I'm buying are from Full Bloom Apiaries out of Connecticut.  Here's what they say about their queens...

Open mated queens will be grafted from several different winter proven Carniolan breeder queens throughout the queen rearing season. Our breeder stock of instrumentally inseminated queens include VP Queen's Spartan line and Sue Cobey's New World Carniolan line.  An emphasis will be placed on saturating the mating yards with drones from VP Queen's Spartan line to increase the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene levels of our queens. All queens will be 21-28 days old and will have capped brood prior to being caught.

I won't find out for a few months if they're "gentle". I'll be sure I'm wearing some protection when mowing for the next few months. Maybe even take the smoker with me  :-\
Next year I may take a trip to northern Vt and buy some queens from M. Palmer, if he's selling them next year. According to his videos, he does breed for gentleness.

[OldMech]

Sounds like a good plan!   I'd love the opportunity to speak with or even work for a day/ten beside Mr. Palmer.