# how to split hives



## sellis (Apr 7, 2006)

im wondering how people go about splitting their hives, am going to split my hives and have never done this before .do you have to move the hive far away from the original place they were at ??? also do you just grab a super off the hive and then determine where the queen is im looking for all the info i can get.


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

Are you going to requeen the queenless side of the split or let them raise their own? If you are going to requeen- then locate the exisiting queen and split the rest of the frames equally, move either box to the new location. If you are going to let them raise their own, make sure you leave sufficient resources (frame of eggs/young larva) for them to make a queen. I would leave a little more open and capped brood with the queenless side and relocate the hive with the queen to a new location. By leaving a little extra brood and leaving the queenless split in place, they will have extra resources to help them along for the 28 days or so they will be queenless. They will also benefit from the returning foragers. Another alternative for multiple splits from one hive is called the circle split- Arrange the "new" splits (two, three, four hives etc.) in a circle around the hive you are going to split. Equally split ALL resources among the new hives and remove the old hive completely. Returning foragers will equalize among the boxes that are left. If you notice one box is getting shorted, just switch locations with one of the strong hives.

David


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Read the post about doing splits here last year.
http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=113962

 Al


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