It's time to split Queen Helen. My friend Wil is going to be using one of the splits for a trap-out. When the trap-out is finished he'll be returning the nuc to me.
Queen Helen's Origin.
How I made the nuc boxes.
The strategy I have in splitting this time of year is:
1) Keeping the hive strong through the nectar flow to maximize honey yields. (Not necessarily for me, but to make sure the bees have enough honey for winter.) The main nectar flow is now drawing to a close and drones are still available to mate with the new queens.
2) I want to make more hives from queens that have proven to make strong hives and can survive the winters here.
3) I want to try overwintering nucs and see what I can learn through that process. Ultimately this is the type of strategy I would like to have going forward: raising queens in the summer + overwinter the nucs = strong hives for the spring.
4) Having a break in brood rearing may also help reduce the mite population. This is not my main purpose, but it's certainly a part of it. Especially since I've been suppressing their swarm instinct. This is an opportunity to still let them "swarm."
Next week I'll check on the splits to make sure they've created queen cells and are raising new queens.
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