With things starting earlier is now a good time to split?

[Aledrinker]

I am hoping to move from one to 2 hives by creating a Nuc from my strong colony 2 brood boxes - they can spare 2 frames of Brood and one of stores (is this enough, I don't wAnt to knock them back but worried if they swarm I will be in a pickle with no back up) there are drones in the strong hive so I am tempted to see if I can get a queen raised in the new nuc by them creating emergency queen cells with the brood I give them - or am I starting too early ?

Thanks in advance for replies

 

[dpearce4]

The earliest you could really do this even this year would be the end of April. The drones just wont be ready until then to make it viable.

 

[enrico]

I agree ... Too early
E

 

[oliver90owner]

AND using emergency cells as a means of raising a queen, particularly in a nuc, is bad news.

There is plenty of time. You are the beekeeper. If they prepare to swarm, then artificially swarm them. If you miss them and lose a swarm, then split the remainder. Bought-in queens will soon be readily available, so what is the problem?

You could get away with doing it now as we have no idea of the forthcoming weather but it would be prudent to wait a month or even six weeks - as long as the bees don't decide for you before then.

Ask yourself why there are so many queens imported from sunnier climes. The answer should give you a clue about the vagaries of the UK weather.

 

[beeno]

Hi Aledrinker,
You will be creating what's known in the trade as a scrub queen. All queen cells should be created by strong colonies so that they are fed well.

 

[Bosleeu]

Best two queens I have ever had were so called scrub queens. Also, as soon as you see drones, you can start queen cells, by the time they have hatched and are ready to go on mating flights, the drones will be fertile. I have seen plenty of drones this afternoon. Let's hope the weather holds.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[BILL.HEARD]

The earliest you could really do this even this year would be the end of April. The drones just wont be ready until then to make it viable.

But looking at a number of colonies in the area and how they are developing we could see quite a number of swarms towards the end of this month and early May.

 

[GlenJ]

That's the vagaries of the British weather for you! last year we were feeding our colonies here to keep them going until the spring arrived. First supers on this year!

 

[richardbees]

Ale

Can you clarify....do you have a single colony on double brood boxes?

If you've already got drones I see no reason why not to split or create a nuc.....once again, we're having an abnormal Spring!