When should I split my beehive?
Splitting a beehive brings amount many benefits such as swarm control and gives you the ability to offset your beekeeping hobby by selling nucleus colonies. However, making splits at the wrong time of the year can create issues that can set your colonies back. In this blog, I will discuss when is best to make splits and why making splits early is better than trying to battle through making splits later in the year.
Why do I need to split my beehive?
The major benefit of splitting a beehive throughout the season is that it alleviates swarm pressure on the colony. Make a split at the right time and the colony can ease its way through the worst of the swarming period. Making splits for sale is also an excellent way to offset the cost of your beekeeping hobby. Overwintered nucs for sale are at their most valuable during April and May, so making splits to ensure they can get through the winter period is critical to the success of your apiary and your wallet.
How to split a beehive?
There are many ways to split a beehive but if you are making up nucs with a specific intention to sell them, we recommend adding a mated queen (that you can buy HERE). The reason for this is that you want to give your resources (brood and stores) the very best chance of forming a fully functional nucleus colony. If you risk this to the mating of a queen, then if it fails, you need to start all over again.
Check out the guide on our website - https://www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk/guides/how-to-split-a-beehive
Here is the method that I use to making nucleus colonies for sale - https://www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk/bee-nucs-for-sale
When can I split a beehive?
You can safely split your beehive any time between April and September as long as you have at least 7-8 frames of brood available. You can split with fewer frames of brood but you can run the risk of leaving either side of the split or nucs, with insufficient resources to be able to manage the