How To Split Your Beehive With Queen Cells
Wondering how to split your beehive with queen cells? As a beekeeper, one of the most rewarding and important skills to develop is the ability to effectively split your beehive. Splitting your hive allows you to increase the number of colonies you manage, replace aging queens, and prevent swarming - all critical components of running a successful and sustainable apiary.
One of the most straightforward methods for splitting a hive is to take advantage of the natural swarm preparation process by using the queen cells that the bees have already started building. In this post, we'll walk through a step-by-step guide on how to identify swarm cells, create a new nucleus colony (or "nuc") with the existing queen, and leave the remaining colony to raise a new queen.
Identifying Swarm Cells
The first step in this process is to thoroughly inspect your hive and identify any signs that the colony is preparing to swarm. The most obvious indicator will be the presence of queen cells, which the bees construct when they are getting ready to raise a new queen.
These queen cells will typically be found on the bottom of the frames, hanging down, and will be larger and more elongated than the typical worker cells; however, they can actually appear any where on the frame and what differentiates them from supersedure cells is there number. My rule here is as follows. If it's one cell in the whole colony, it's supersedure. Any more than one and I treat it as swarming. Importantly, you'll want to look for queen cells that are still uncapped, as this indicates the colony has not yet swarmed.
"As soon as I've seen uncapped queen cells, I know I've got a good chance of finding the queen."
Once you've located the uncapped queen cells, your next step is to try and find the existing queen. This is an important step, as you'll want to make sure you capture the queen and include her in the new nuc colony you'll be creating.
Creating the Nuc
With the queen located and the uncapped queen cells identified, you can now begin the process of splitting the hive. The goal here is to create a new nuc colony that contains the existing queen, some brood, and enough bees to get the new colony established.
Here are the key steps:
Identify an open, uncapped queen cell: Identify the best looking open queen cell and place that frame to one side in the hive. You will need it later. Be careful with this frame and never shake it.
Select a Frame with Brood and the Queen: Gently locate the queen and transfer her, along with the frame she is on, into a new nuc box or hive body. Make sure to select a frame that also contains a good amount of brood in all stages of development and ensure there are NO queen cells on this frame.
Add Additional Brood and Stores Frames: Select 1-2 additional frames from the original hive that contain a mix of brood, honey, and pollen. These will provide the new nuc with the resources it needs to get started. If they have queen cells on, you need to squish them, ensuring you leave a queen cell for the original hive.
Shake in Extra Bees: To ensure the new nuc has a strong population, gently shake bees from 1-2 additional frames directly into the nuc. This will help boost the number of nurse bees and foragers. Don't shake bees from the frame that contains your uncapped queen cell as you will dislodge the larvae.
Avoid Dislodging Queen Cells: When handling the frames, be extremely careful not to dislodge or damage any of the uncapped queen cells you identified earlier. These are crucial for the remaining colony to raise a new queen.
Seal Up the Nuc: Once you've got the necessary components in the nuc, close it up and move it to a new location at least 3 miles away from the original hive. This will help prevent the new nuc's foragers from returning to the parent colony. If you don't have a different apiary you can follow this steps in this video to make this work in the same apiary. My recommendation is to split into a new apiary as it makes things MUCH easier!
The key things to remember are:
Find the queen and transfer her to the nuc
Include a frame with brood in all stages
Add extra bees by shaking frames
Be very gentle with any queen cells
Move the nuc at least 3 miles away
Preparing the Parent Colony
With the new nuc successfully created, you can now turn your attention back to the original hive. The goal here is to leave the colony with at least one viable queen cell so they can raise a new queen on their own.
Here are the steps:
Verify There is a Good Queen Cell: Carefully inspect the frames and confirm there is at least one uncapped queen cell that looks healthy and well-provisioned with royal jelly. This will be the cell you leave behind (the one you identifed earlier!)
Remove Any Remaining Queen Cells: Gently go through the frames and remove any other queen cells you find. You want to leave just the single best cell for the colony to focus on. Leaving any more than one and your colony may still swarm!
Reassemble the Hive: Once you've verified the presence of the queen cell and removed the extras, you can put the hive back together, making sure to replace the queen excluder and any other components.
Mark the Hive: To help you remember which colony has the queen cell, place a small stick or marker on top of the hive. This will serve as a visual cue when you return in a few weeks. It also helps the virgin queen identify the hive she should return to one mated.
The key things to remember are:
Leave 1 good uncapped queen cell
Remove any other queen cells
Reassemble the hive carefully
Mark the hive to identify the queenless colony
Monitoring the New Colonies
With the split complete, your work is not quite done. You'll need to closely monitor both the new nuc and the parent colony over the next several weeks to ensure the transition goes smoothly.
For the nuc:
Leave the nuc undisturbed for at least 1 week to allow the queen/bees to get used to their new home
Check for eggs/larvae after 1 week to confirm the queen is laying and the split was successful
Feed the nuc if needed to ensure they have adequate stores
For the parent colony:
Check back in 4 weeks to see if the queen cell has successfully hatched, mated and is laying well
Look for signs of a new laying queen, such as eggs and young larvae
If the queen cell fails, you may need to introduce a mated queen or provide another frame of eggs.
The key things to remember are:
Leave the original colony alone for 4+ weeks
Check for a laying queen in the nuc after 1 week
Feed the nuc if needed
Check the parent colony in 4 weeks for a new queen and take action if the mating failed
If the split fails due to bad weather you need to find and KILL the virgin before adding a new queen. Once the virgin has been killed, so long as she didn't lay any brood, you are now on Day 8 of the process detailed in the guide/video below:
You can buy mated queen bees from Black Mountain Honey.
The Benefits of Splitting with Queen Cells
There are several advantages to using this method of splitting your hive with queen cells, rather than other queen rearing techniques:
Simplicity: This approach is relatively straightforward and doesn't require any specialised equipment or complex procedures. As long as you can identify the queen cells and handle the frames carefully, you can successfully create a new colony.
Timing: By taking advantage of the colony's natural swarm preparation, the timing of the split aligns perfectly with the bees' own reproductive cycle. This minimises disruption and gives the new queen the best chance of successful mating.
Resource Efficiency: Rather than having to dedicate resources to raising new queens from scratch, this method allows you to leverage the work the bees have already done. This can be especially helpful for smaller-scale or hobbyist beekeepers.
Swarm Prevention: Removing the existing queen and creating a new nuc can help prevent the original colony from swarming. This allows you to maintain a strong, productive hive while also increasing your total number of colonies. This technique is called an artificial swarm.
Queen Quality: Bees typically put a lot of care and resources into raising their swarm queen cells. This can result in high-quality queens that are well-suited to the local environment.
Overall, splitting hives with queen cells is an efficient, cost-effective, and relatively low-risk way for beekeepers of all experience levels to grow their apiaries. By understanding the process and carefully executing the steps, you can successfully create new colonies and manage swarming behaviour.
The Disadvantages of Splitting with Queen Cells
Genetics: By utilising swarm cells to create a new queen, you are moving down a generation. If you had an F1 Buckfast mated queen that tried to swarm and you use the swarm cells to raise a new queen, the resulting queen will be an F2 and her daughters traits will be impacted by local drones. You effectively lose 50% of the Buckfast heritage of the F1 Buckfast queen.
Breeding: By selecting swarm cells for creating a new colony, you are baking in the swarming genetics. I want my bees to NOT swarm. By using this method, you are selecting swarming as an acceptable trait and the subsequent generations are more likely to swarm. The alternative is to graft queens from a colony that has not swarmed in years and then you are selecting for non-swarming traits.
Risk of Failure: This method can result in a failed mating, which for beginners can be difficult. If the mating fails, you HAVE TO find and kill the virgin queen to be able to introduce a new mated queen. If you cannot find the virgin, the colony will fail and dwindle away to nothing.
What's The Alternative?
Instead of leaving an open, uncapped queen cell in the original colony, you can remove ALL the queen cells. Wait 8 days. Remove any further emergency cells and that will leave you on day 8 on the requeening video above. This is safer method as the queen that's introduced is already mated and mitigates the risk of the virgin failing and then having to find and kill the virgin before adding in a mated queen.
How To Stop Bees From Swarming?
Maybe you just avoid the bees swarming in the first place? It can actually work. Check out this guide and video:
Additional Resources
If you're interested in learning more about making splits, queen rearing, and other essential beekeeping skills, be sure to check out the resources available on the Black Mountain Honey YouTube channel.
The channel covers a wide range of beekeeping topics, from disease recognition and control to honey extraction techniques, and is a great resource for beekeepers of all experience levels.
Comments