Burdell Bees 2014

[matrout76]

I have two Burdell hives on order and am expecting to receive those at the end of April or first May, depending on when they are ready.

I understand that they will probably be ready to split soon after receiving them and have enough equipment on hand for 4 hives.

Do we know for sure when the Burdell's will be ready to pick up?

What else do I need to know, or be ready for?

How soon after splitting should I put the Supers on?

Thanks!
Matt

[hive dipper]

Still haven't got a firm date. It depends on when Fred feels they are ready. The hives are usually strong when we get them. If you stay on them and keep removing swarm cells you don't have to split. If you do a half and half split , the hive with the old queen will build up much quicker because the other half has to make a new queen. when a hive has to make a new queen there is about 6 -7 week wait time for the first new bees to emerge. It will on how you split and on bee population as to when they will need supers. There is always something you need to know or be ready for but the bees haven't told you yet.

[matrout76]

I got my Burdell's home yesterday and everything seems great so far. Thanks to Sam and Tim for putting that together!!!

First question: Are the queens marked?

I'm trying to plan my split and haven't thought to ask this yet.

Thanks again!
Matt Trout

[hive dipper]

Queens are not marked. If you are going to let the hive make its own new queen, I would suggest finding the queen and 1 or 2 frames with mostly capped brood and the bees adhearing to those frames and placing them in a new box and letting the strong part of the hive make the new queen. It will be a stronger queen because the larva will be better fed. Remember that it will take about 1 month for them to make a queen, let her get mated and start laying. then another 21 days before any of her brood will hatch, so about 7 weeks until she starts repopulating the hive.

[matrout76]

Tim,

Thanks for the info!

I am planning to split my Burdell's this weekend, weather permitting and will use your recommendations.

I have been reading about using the "MDA method" of creating queen cells and understand that i need to notch the bottom of the cells that are toward the center of a frame (vertically) with eggs that are laying on their side or very small larva. Here are a few questions:

1) how many location should i do this on a frame? How many frames in the hive?
2) how many cells should i notch (how wide of a notch)?
3) how long should I wait to check and see if they have made queen cells?

Thanks!!!

[x-sfmed]

Matt,
That is not necessary for creating a split. Just do what Tim wrote above. Notching cells is more in line with queen rearing. Yes, you want a new queen for the split that will be queenless but you dont want 10 queens. Google Bush's Bees and read his different methods for splitting. Hope that helps

John

[matrout76]

I split my hive on Sunday and everything went well!

It took me a while to find the queen. I went thru all the frames and didn't see her, then went back thru the frames with eggs and found her. She was pretty small (about the same size as some of the drones) but i watched her and the bees around her for a minute or so and am pretty confident it was her.

My split ended up with 4 frames of open brood and two frames of pollen and nectar, two drawn frames, and 2 frames of foundation. I also put a feeder inside of a deep box on top of an inner cover and under the telescoping cover. The entrance is reduced to 3/4" x 3/8" and i plugged it with grass. It took them at least an hour to get the grass pulled out.

My original hive has a 6 frames of capped brood, one frame with eggs and all stages of brood (for them to start a queen) and a bunch of frames that are 7 frames that are drawn and partially filled with nectar and pollen, and 5 frames of foundation. On top of this i have placed 2 honey supers. the lower super has been on for a week and they have started putting nectar in it. The upper super is foundation.

My split is only about 3' away from the old hive, but rotated 180 degrees so the entrance is on the West (original hive has an entrance on the East). I'm going to leave them like this for a week and then may start slowing rotating the hive so they are both on the same side.

It seemed that yesterday afternoon the old hive was aggressive and the split was not. I walk up to the hives from the West and bees coming and going from the split didn't mind me. when i walked to the side of the original hive, i started getting buzzed and bumped by the bees...

In all, it seemed to go OK. I'm planning to inspect the split on Wednesday evening and will just leave the original hive alone until next weekend. Hopefully they will have some queens started by then.

Thanks for the info and help!!!
Matt