Making Successful Splits for Requeening

Making splits is an excellent way to increase colony numbers, reduce swarming pressure, and introduce new Buckfast or Carniolan genetics. The key is to make a split that is large enough to support a new queen, while leaving the parent colony strong enough to continue growing and producing honey.

Step 1: Find and Secure the Queen

Before you begin, find the queen and place her in a queen clip, hair roller cage, or similar protector. Place her safely on top of the brood frames in the parent colony.

This is one of the most important steps in the whole process. It ensures you always know where the queen is during the manipulation, prevents her from accidentally being moved into a split, and means you cannot close the hive without releasing her.

Step 2: Build the Split

Only split strong, healthy colonies with plenty of brood and bees.

A typical nuc-sized split might contain:

· 2 frames of sealed or emerging brood
· 1 frame of food containing honey and pollen
· Young bees shaken from an additional brood frame
· Drawn comb or foundation to complete the box

The aim is to provide enough brood and bees for rapid development without seriously weakening the parent colony.

Step 3: Check Every Frame for Queen Cells

Once the split has been assembled, carefully inspect every frame that has been removed from the parent colony.

Shake the bees from each frame and thoroughly check for queen cells.

This is probably the most common reason for failure when introducing a purchased queen. If a queen cell is missed, the colony will usually prefer its own queen and reject the introduced queen.

Take your time with this step. A few extra minutes here can save an expensive queen.

Step 4: Leave the Split Queenless

Allow the split to remain queenless for several hours. This gives the colony time to realise it has lost its queen and greatly improves acceptance of a new one.

Step 5: Introduce the New Queen

Introduce your Buckfast or Carniolan queen in her introduction cage.

Do not release her immediately. Allow the bees to become accustomed to her presence and release her gradually through the candy plug according to the supplier's instructions. Slow release generally results in much higher acceptance rates.

Step 6: Check Acceptance

After 5–7 days, inspect the colony to confirm that the queen has been released and accepted. Look for calm behaviour and, shortly afterwards, fresh eggs and young larvae.

Step 7: Help the Colony Build Up

If forage is limited, provide light feeding to encourage comb building and brood rearing.

Splits made early in the season have plenty of time to develop into strong colonies capable of overwintering successfully. The earlier they are made, the greater their chances of entering winter with a healthy population and adequate stores.

A well-made split, combined with a quality Buckfast or Carniolan queen, can quickly develop into a productive colony while allowing the parent hive to remain strong and prosperous.