For a hive over-wintered in a single brood box. A double brood box should be reduced to single as early as possible in March.
Objectives
- To prevent swarming
- To provide good replacement queens
- To build up the hive with the old queen and a hive with a new queen to be at full strength and united in time for the main honey flow (mid-June)
Timing
Between mid-end March the transfer of bees to clean comb should start – see changing brood comb. Then bees should be fed as necessary to stimulate good development. A second brood box should be added about the second week in April, and again fed, if necessary.
Requirements
- By the end of April, to have a proven queen with a double brood box well developed, with a good balance of bees, brood in all stages on 8-10 (or more) frames and adequate pollen and stores
- A clean floor, empty brood box, divider board, crown board, queen excluder and roof
About the end of April
Day 1:
- Set up the empty single-brood hive on a new site about 3 feet from the original hive
- If on inspection queen cells are found, follow the instructions given here
- If no queen cells then find the queen and put her with all the bees on the frame in this box on the new site, add 1 frame with stores and bees, and 1 frame with, if possible, a small amount of emerging brood, and close off with divider board
- Replace the 3 frames taken, with foundation. Feed. If there is a super on the original hive, take it off, shake off the bees and put it on the new site hive
- Bees act on loss of queen and build supercedure cells
Day 8 onwards:
- In original hive check for queen cells which may be capped
- Select best cells to be retained and mark top bars of frames
- As soon as cells are capped, take 3 frames of brood in all stages with bees, there must be NO queen cells, and put them with the old queen on the new site. Spray with dilute sugar syrup before uniting. Again, replace these 3 frames with foundation and if necessary feed
Day 12 (NO LATER):
- Select 2 best cells on separate frames, brush off bees and remove all other queen cells. Do not shake frames. Queens hang vertically in cells and, if dislodged, may die
- Leave one selected cell in hive to emerge, and put the other on its frame, in a nuc. box and shake in extra bees from a brood frame
If swarm queen cells are found:
- A hive might swarm any time after the queen cell is capped (i.e. day 8 of the 16-day period from egg to emergence of the queen) so time is of the essence
- Take any supers off
- Move hive to one side
- Put empty brood box on original site with 2 stores frames and 8 drawn comb and/or foundation
- Find queen, make sure no queen cells on frame and this becomes 11th frame on original site in middle of box
- Above a queen excluder replace any supers
- Original brood boxes go on a new site 3 feet from original site
- Divider board replaces queen frame. Feed until all cells capped
- Follow procedure for day 8 and day 12 for selecting queen cells and removing all excess queen cells but do NOT transfer any brood to queen's hive
Reduce to one brood box as soon as possible.
George McCrone, Spring 2007
