Colony Division: An Easy Method to Split a Colony (2024)

Spring is a busy time of year for beekeepers as honey bees begin swarming preparations.

- [Kathleen] Welcome, I'm going to walk you through a quick and simple method to divide or split a colony.

I will first give you a brief overview of the biology of a swarm, and then I will dive into how to perform a split.

Swarming is a unique form of reproduction at the colony level.

Honey bee swarms are a normal sign of a productive and strong colony.

Swarming is when the majority of worker bees in the colony along with the queen leave the original nest to establish a new nest.

For example, in a neighboring tree or the siding of a house.

A split is an artificial swarm implemented by a beekeeper.

It is used as a management strategy to reduce swarming incidences and increase colony numbers.

The population of a colony fluctuates throughout the year according to the seasons and the resource availability.

Here is a graph showing the daily number of adult bees and brood in a colony over the course of one season.

During early spring, the lengthening days and ample resources of pollen and nectar stimulate brood rearing.

With this increase and the accompanying increase in adult bees, the nest area of the colony becomes crowded and the colony will begin swarming preparations.

Swarming occurs when adult bee populations peak.

Swarming peaks in mid-spring during May and June.

You can see there is a secondary peak in swarming during late summer in July and August as fall nectar flow begins.

What induces a swarm?

Swarming preparations begin with queen rearing, up to four weeks before the swarm issues.

There are many factors that induce queen rearing, including colony congestion, which leads to reduced transmission of queen pheromones throughout the colony, presence of queen cells, increased drone brood, and resource abundance or intense flowering.

Swarming occurs during periods of intense flowering and as a bystander you will notice foragers with copious amounts of pollen entering the colony.

The first visual sign that a colony is preparing to swarm is the appearance of queen cells in which the queen is reared.

As queens develop the cells elongate and resemble a peanut in which the queen emerges from the tip.

Workers tend to build cells along the edges and bottoms of the comb, although they can be found on comb faces.

Colonies rear on average 10 to 25 cells at once.

Once the eggs hatch into larvae, the workers provide a special gland food, a royal jelly, which triggers the development of queen like characteristics, including fully developed ovaries and glands for producing queen pheromones.

As the queen develops, the cells are capped and within 72 hours of capping a swarm issues.

About one week prior to swarming, the queen is prepped for flight, workers feed her less resulting in reduced egg laying, thus her abdomen diminishes in weight so that she can fly with the swarm.

Several days prior to swarming, workers will engorge with honey to ensure that they have sufficient food reserves while in transit.

The swarm issues during warmer hours of the day.

About 60 to 70% of workers and the queen leave in mass from the entrance and cluster on a nearby object, for example a branch.

Majority of bees that issue are less than 10 days old.

The cluster usually remains anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.

Scout bees will scout the area to find a suitable cavity to establish a new nest.

It is common for previous nests to become reoccupied.

The original colony retains about 30 to 40% of workers along with capped and uncapped queen cells, brood, and food reserves, including pollen and honey.

The emerging brood in the original colony provides influx of young workers and alots the colony's population to rebound until a queen emerges and begins laying.

Here is a short video of an emerging queen.

On day 16, the queen emerges.

She will chew a circular cut around the cap of her cell and workers assist the queen while she emerges.

Often, the cap swings open when most of the cut is made.

She will eat, groom herself, and begin to look for rival queens.

Within three weeks after emergence, she will mate and return to the colony to begin laying.

An emerged queen announces her presence by pheromones in a series of high-pitched pulsed sounds or piping.

Occasionally, two or more queens emerge at once.

After a few hours the queens will fight until only one remains.

Queens will scout the comb, killing other queens that have yet to emerge by cutting a small hole in the side of the cell and stinging the occupants.

I will now move in to part two of this video, swarm management.

I will walk you through a step by step protocol of how to perform a split.

Swarm management pertains more to over winter colonies, however, it is not uncommon for package bees to swarm during their first year, particularly during the summer.

Swarm preventative strategies include removing existing queen cells, providing more space for both resources, such as pollen and nectar, and brood rearing by adding supers and splitting a colony.

Colony splits are typically an early spring management tool, but it is not uncommon to split a colony mid-season.

Swarming can be a problem for beekeepers.

Loss of swarms from managed colonies can severely depress honey production due to loss of bees.

Splitting a colony early before peak nectar flow is a common practice that minimizes honey losses.

It is also an excellent way to increase colonies and compensate for previous winter losses.

Timing is essential.

A reliable splitting season regardless of where you live is the presence of drones and dandelions.

Typically, splits are performed as the colony's coming out of winter.

In tempered regions this will be in late April or May.

Splitting prior to major nectar flows will allow colony populations to rebound and prevent significant losses in honey.

It is important to wait until the colony is large enough so that after a split, there are sufficient adult bees in each colony.

A common mistake is splitting when a colony is too small.

A general rule is to wait until the colony is at least two hive bodies tall and seems crowded.

A good indicator of the time in which to split a colony is when the dandelions are in bloom.

Splitting a colony to early in the season can also result in chilled brood and failure of the queen to mate.

Another indication that it is time to split is the presence of charged queen cups or queen cells.

A queen cell will have either an egg or larvae inside and will typically be slightly longer than a queen cup.

It is common to see queen cups throughout the season even when the colony is not preparing to swarm, however, once a queen cell is spotted it is time to split.

The time between the presence of queen cells and swarming is very narrow and is often difficult to catch a colony at this exact time.

Thus, it is not uncommon to split a colony prior to the presence of queen cells, however, the colony must be strong, lots of bees in brood, and at least two, preferably three, hive bodies tall.

Let's get started.

There are multiple techniques to split a colony.

I'm going to discuss a common and simple technique that does not require moving or shaking worker bees.

In general, the less that you disturb the bees, the easier it will be.

It is important to have everything ready in advance.

Materials include a smoker, hive tool, a super, and an additional hive, including a lid, inner cover, hive bodies, bottom board, and empty frames.

First, have your new equipment ready.

Initially, while I am performing the splits, I setup the new colony near where I am working to make the transfer of frames easier.

Second, find the queen.

This can be a tedious task when the colony is large.

If the queen is present there will be eggs.

A few days before a swarm issues, queen will cease laying in preparation for flight.

If there are cap queen cells, no eggs, and the bee population has diminished, the colony probably has already swarmed.

If the colony is large, one option is to find the queen a few days in advance, place her in the top or bottom super with a queen excluder, and on the day of the split she will be easier to find.

Finding the queen takes experience and can be difficult for beginning beekeepers.

In general, it is easier to spot her if she is marked.

Once the queen is spotted, mover her to a new colony or split.

It is best to not physically handle the queen so not to damage her.

An easy way to move her is to move the entire frame that she is on to the new colony.

Give this colony empty frames so the queen can continue to lay.

Open and capped brood should stay with the original colony.

It is important that you do not place the queen cells in the same colony as the laying queen, as this may stimulate a swarm.

Next, split the resources, including pollen and honey, evenly between the two colonies.

Do not attempt to shake or remove bees from these frames.

Next, you will switch the locations of the colonies placing the split with the laying queen in the original location.

About one-third of the colony are foragers and the reduced population in the split will be quickly replenished as the foragers return and the queen continues laying, so be patient.

Place the original colony with the capped queen cells and brood to a new location, either in the same or a different apiary.

As workers emerge in the original colony the population will replenish over time until a new queen emerges and begins laying.

The nurse bees in the original colony have yet to leave the hive and make orientation flights so these bees will return to the specific location that you place this colony.

It will take on average three weeks before you will spot eggs.

It is recommended to give the new colony a super so the queen has ample room to continue laying and to store resources.

I've created an animated diagram to summarize this process.

First, have your new hive equipment ready.

After finding the queen, place her along with the frame she is on in the new colony or split.

Split the pollen and honey stores evenly between the colonies.

Now, switch locations of the colonies.

Give the split a super so the queen has ample room to continue to lay.

The foragers will return to the new colony and the nurse bees along with the developing queen and brood will remain in the original colony.

The nurse bees in the original colony have yet to leave the hive and make orientation flights, so these bees will return to the location in which you place this colony.

At this point, the colony can be left to rear a new queen.

If you are introducing a new queen cell, you would do this now.

There are multiple methods to re-queen a colony.

The original colony can be left to rear a new queen, you can introduce a queen cell from another colony, or a new queen with specific genetics can be introduced.

If you are introducing a new queen, it is important to wait three days before introducing her.

During this three day period workers will begin rearing a new queen from worker brood and so it is important to remove all queen cells before introducing her, otherwise this could cause rejection of the new queen.

If splitting a colony before the presence of queen cells and you do not have access to a queen or a queen cell, it is not uncommon to let the bees rear a queen from worker eggs.

After the split is complete it is best to not disturb the original colony for two to three weeks so that the queen can mate and begin laying.

After three weeks check for eggs.

Feeding is encouraged when the weather does not permit foraging or it is still to early in the season to forage.

Frames of honey can be given to the colony.

If you do not have frames of honey, alternative feeding methods, including mason jar, entrance feeders, or division boards.

If you are using a division board place floaters, for example, styrofoam balls, or a latter, which is highlighted in red, inside so that the bees have something to land on and will not drown.

Examples can easily be found online.

Congratulations, you have successfully split a colony.

I hope that you have enjoyed this video and happy beekeeping.