? I want to start a new hive in the spring?

[harvey]

Hello All,  I have one hive that I started or I should say that I put a swarm in May 30th.  I have been enjoying learning all I can about bee's since then,  Maybe spending to much time at it!  I would like to start another hive in the spring.  This time I think I would like to use foundationless frames and small cell or natural cell. 

What would be the best way to start a hive?  Don't figure I will be fortunate enough to have another swarm come and find me.  The first landed in my plum tree.  Packages?  A split?  Really I have no ideas yet.  I can get the equipment over the winter and have it all painted up and ready to go come spring. 

[sc-bee]

You could buy a package but if going small cell I would think it would be better if you could find a nuc of bees already on small cell . If not can regress them to small cell your self if you have patience!!! I didn't :evil:

See Michaels Bush's website on small and natural cell.

[Kathyp]

do you want small cell or natural cell?  if you go foundationless, you get natural cell.  if you want small cell buy small cell.  my personal opinion, backed by the article on the research posted by TwT the other day, is that small cell is a waste of money.  some people swear by it.  do your research before you make up your mind which way to go.

a package is probably the way to go if you want to have them draw their own. a swarm would do nicely, but hard to count on getting one.

[sc-bee]

UGA did a small study on small cell. It was very limited but the results if I remember right was actually more mites because of more cells per frame.

That may be the study twt posted --- I did not look for it---- but will ;).

[Natalie]

You may be able to get your name on a list at your local bee club for a swarm catch.There are people at our club who give away or sell the swarms they catch.               Its good to plan ahead,you have all winter to gather your equipment and do research.         I don't have any personal experience with small cell but Ido have all my hives on natural comb and I like this method for the simplicity of it. Its the same reason I wentg with all the same size boxes as well. I also didn't want to have to worry about chemicals being in the foundation from the wax being rendered after being used in someone else's hives. You can put a package von foundationless frames or you can transition a nuc over to natural comb and phase out the old frames if need be. I've done it and it wasn't hard.      I was also able to order a few nucs this year that were already started on natural comb.               Do your research and don't be afraid to experiment with different methods.

[honeytaker]

or you could wait till your hive swarms (they will sorry)

[harvey]

Do you think they will swarm the second year?  so far they seem to be building up pretty good.  They have the second brood all drawn with a little honey in it.  I want to check again next week and then hopefully add a super!   I don't know how much longer the thistle will be in bloom and would sure love to get some honey off of it.   

Maybe I could split them next spring and make them think they did swarm?

[jdpro5010]

Yes you can do a split next spring.  I would just make sure you put the old queen in the new split to help prevent the swarming tendencies of the older queen.

[homer]

Do you think they will swarm the second year? 
Maybe I could split them next spring and make them think they did swarm?

They can swarm pretty much anytime they want to, but the older the queen is the more likely the bees are to swarm.

Splitting is a good way to prevent swarming, but nothing is a guarantee!  That's really the most important thing to know as a beekeeper...  Nothing is ever a guarantee!