Splitting The Girls

Over the past few weeks we have been watching the weather for the right time to split the colony and even with the chance of rain today was the time. Earlier in the week the dandy lions started come out and that is a good sign and the girls have been busy, the front of the hive is a bit yellow with pollen. Today we split the hive into three colony's, which went well. With all the pictures ReBecca took we were able to confirm the Queen was there and did get moved to an other colony. There was a lot to do, I moved into each super, four frames from the existing supers, all had honey, pollen, capped brood and other stages of development, along with four new frames for them to draw out and get started with. This should be successful, and in a few weeks we'll add a Queen excluder and then the honey supers for us, then wait for the fall to see how they did.

You can see the pollen on the front.

Busy even at the rear of the hive.

Under side of the inner cover.

The Queen is still with us.

Below the inner cover.

Carefully removing a frame.

Talking it out slowly.

Checking it out and looking for the Queen.

Still looking.

Lots of capped brood.

They'll build comb anywhere, bee space is important.

Lots of new bees.

You can see new ones chewing their way out.

Never stop bring in the pollen.

Lots of pollen to bring in.