need opinions from the group!
i made 2 splits today! here are the details.
went to 2 strong hives and did an inspection.
found capped brood and capped drones in the bottom boxes, both of the bottom boxes were full of brood.
went to the upper boxes that were new looking comb and found capped brood,young larvae and eggs in good numbers.
i had drones scattered in these hives but no queen cells as of yet.
i make 4 frame swarm boxes for swarm trapping and decided to use them for making walk away splits.
i am guessing that by pulling only 4 frames from a strong hive they wont really be set back very far.
these are medium frame swarm traps.
the splits were made as described below.
i pulled 1 frame of nectar/honey and put it in the box. i then pulled 1 frame of capped brood and put that in the box. then i put 2 frames of eggs and small larvae from the new looking comb in the upper box so they could make queen cells without having to work old stiff wax.
i then moved the parent hive over 1 space and put the split in it,s place. i then blocked off the the parent hive to force the field bees into the splits.
this was done in the afternoon to assure a good workforce to be in the field.
i will open the parent hives back up after dark tonight.
anyone see any flaws in this?
please chime in with any and all opinions!
thanks
Bailey