Complete Change of Plan While Splitting Bees

Splits are one of the coolest things in the beekeeping world and there are so many ways a beekeeper can accomplish this task. A viewer recently mentioned OTS splits and after learning more about the process I decided to try one. I thought I had a perfect candidate but once I got into the bees I decided I needed to do something else entirely different. The decision I made was a bit risky but I hope things work out well. I hope you find the video interesting. Would love to see your comments down below. Let me know what you would have done different. I have learned much over the years from my viewers. It's a wonderful time of year. We are on the verge of an amazing season I hope. Lots of fun things ahead!

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@brucesbees is a beekeeping channel, a vlog of sorts. Here we discuss apis mellifera, aka the honeybee. We give people a look into our sideliner beekeeping operation. We share successes and failures. We show how we feed bees and treat bees for pests, such as varroa mites, small hive beetles and others. I am not a treatment free beekeeper though at one time I thought I wanted to be. We also discus things that are important to us that I think apply to beginning beekeepers and more seasoned beekeepers alike. We also show the beekeeping techniques we use to manage the bees and harvest our honey and sell our honey. We talk about beekeeping equipment and tools. At times we also catch swarms of bees and have even done a few cutouts, though I usually leave that for the professionals. This is not Beekeeping 101, though hopefully the information here is useful. As my good friend @Mike Barry says, this is not a necessarily a "how to" channel. It's a "how I do" channel. I hope you will continue to join us as we continue to perform hive inspections, discuss important matters in the beekeeping world, meet other beekeepers, perform splits, grow our operation and just continue down the path of this wonderful beekeeping adventure. Let's GO!!!

[kentmeredith]

I learned a good tip to find the queen from Mel Disselkohn, who was the developer of the “OTS” method. He said to put an empty box next to your hive and as you inspect each frame, put it in the new box. Your chance of success is much higher, since the queen can’t run to a frame you already inspected.

[dolezalhoneybees]

Us northern Beekeepers are envious of you Bee Keepers in the south.. Single digit lows here. Good decision to split. Awesome video!

[phillipduncan]

This just goes to prove that the bees will tell you what and when you need to do things. I am watching this with some ice and snow on the ground here near Kansas City. I look forward to seeing how these turn out.

[horizontalbees]

So amazing seeing you split hives this early in the season and they were ready to swarm.

[smainebelhadi]

Hi Bruce. I think you did the right thing at the right time, otherwise you'll end up loosing a lot of new colonies ( swarms ), and the honey harvest from such a strong colonie like this. My suggestion in the next situation like this is to devide the colonie into four like you did by shaking the bees through a queen exluder equally into each box, so you can have a better assessment of queen cells, and be able to catch the queen mother on top of the exluder if she still there. Next, put the queen with a frame of mixt eggs, larvaes, an close brood, and frame of food in a box. Shake some bees to cover the two frame and take it away. Now you can devide the rest of the colonie depending on how many queen cell you collected.

[todpatn]

I think you did the right thing. I think the hive was ready to split. Don’t beat yourself, have patients

[terry]

I understand what you was planning on doing. However as usual we have to what the bees need at the time and what the situation calls for.

I like that you moved the queen to a different box. I don't think it is too early to split if they are bringing in nectar and you have drones. I believe that the you will have 4 hives needing another box in 3 to 4 weeks. Please do a follow up video. Good luck. Holladay Honey Bees

[robertsloan]

Look at all of that beautiful bee footage

[bees]

My 3 hives are in 3 feet of snow and it was 4 below zero this morning here in northern Maine. I won't see my bees for a while but it was good to see yours! Thanks for the video!

[jeromewesselman]

After reading lots of books on beekeeping, what you did seems to make the most sense to me. I think I would’ve done the same thing.

[osok]

I think you did great, I like to see a follow up with this hives.

[kathyhathaway]

With these big full. Colonies sometimes I have to just end up shaking them down thru a excluder to find the queen . Great looking bees . THANKS

[Ashby_Farms_NC]

Great example of how to use what you find on the fly!!! And if you get 3 out of 4 you’re doing well! Great video!

[mineral-qlmn]

Hi from Ukraine. I watch your videos to take over some new experience in a beekeeping, and just not to forget English

[CCCRApiary]

I found OTS my first year in bee keeping. Brad has a wonderful video on the process. Made several successful colonies with that process. Going to explore grafting this year. Different tricks up the sleeve for different times. that colony was going to hit the trees in a week. Probably what you saw were the bees trying to stop her laying so she would slim down and fly. When she tried to lay they were ganging up on her. Never seen it before only read about it! My bees are prepping just like yours. I checked several today and they had nectar they were bringing in!

[jhulin]

Really appreciate explaining as you go. What a hive to find a queen in - just a little tough. On Natures Image video “How to Split a Bee Hive” at 09:47, Greg Burns shows that you can find which box the queen is in by separating the boxes and sitting them side by side. You then pass a few puffs of smoke between them and listen. The quieter box is the one that generally will have the queen. The box without the queen will have a slight roar.

[goldenopalhunting]

Wow I loved watching this. With easy to follow instructions.. keep up the great work and I hope it all goes well.. sending luck from Dunolly Australia

[DonaldRogersBaldEagle]

Lookingforward to seeing the results of this 4 way split.

[Bluegrass]

Wow! Looking forward to the next time you come back to check on the 4 way split .

[JandHFarms]

Good stuff Bruce.

Can't wait for spring!