Hive splitting is a fundamental beekeeping technique used for colony propagation and swarm control. Locating the single, fertile queen among thousands of worker bees is often difficult due to her small size and rapid movement. A queenless split offers an efficient solution, bypassing the need for positive queen identification before dividing the colony. This method relies entirely on the bees’ instinct to rear a replacement queen when they sense her absence, allowing the beekeeper to increase apiary numbers.
Necessary Conditions for Successful Splitting
A successful queenless split depends on favorable conditions within the hive and the environment. The parent colony must be strong, covering at least eight to ten frames of brood, to ensure the new split has a sufficient population. Splitting should only occur during a strong nectar flow and when drones are actively flying, typically from mid-spring to early summer. A steady nectar source provides the resources necessary for the new colony to build comb and feed its young, and abundant drones are required for the new queen to mate successfully.
The new nucleus colony must be established with the necessary assets for the bees to raise an emergency queen. This includes frames containing ample capped brood, which will soon hatch to replenish the worker population, and stores of honey and pollen for nutrition. Most importantly, the split must contain young female larvae or eggs that are less than three days old. Only these young individuals are capable of being converted into a queen by the nurse bees.
Step-by-Step Guide to the Walk-Away Split
The “Walk-Away Split” is executed by creating a new, separate colony box, often a smaller nuc box, right next to the original hive. The first step involves selecting the appropriate frames from the parent colony to move into the new box. A standard five-frame nucleus split requires two frames of capped brood, one frame of open brood containing young larvae, and two frames of stored honey and pollen. These frames should be covered in nurse bees when moved.
To ensure the split has a large enough population of young workers, beekeepers often shake an additional frame or two of nurse bees into the new box. These nurse bees are necessary to feed and care for the developing queen cells. The next step is to move the newly created split to a new location, ideally more than three miles from the original apiary. This distance ensures that older, foraging field bees return to the original hive, leaving only the young nurse bees to recognize their queenless state and initiate queen-rearing.
The original hive is returned to its stand, retaining the laying queen and the returning foragers. Moving the new box strategically guarantees the new colony is queenless, while the parent colony remains strong and queenright. The split is then closed up and left undisturbed, allowing the bees to begin raising a new queen.
Rearing a New Queen: The Biological Timeline
Once the nurse bees realize they are queenless, they begin raising a replacement from the youngest female larvae. They modify existing worker cells containing larvae less than three days old into emergency queen cells, feeding the larva an exclusive diet of royal jelly. This protein-based secretion alters the larva’s development pathway, causing it to mature into a fertile queen instead of a sterile worker.
The development process from egg to adult queen takes approximately 16 days. The queen cell is typically capped around day eight or nine, and the virgin queen emerges about seven days later. After emerging, the virgin queen spends five to eight days inside the hive maturing and making short orientation flights. She then embarks on multiple mating flights, returning to the hive to begin laying eggs approximately three to four weeks after the original split was made.
Post-Split Checks and Troubleshooting
The first inspection of the queenless split should be done seven to ten days after the division to verify that the bees have initiated emergency queen cells. The beekeeper is looking for capped queen cells, which confirms the colony is actively raising a new queen. A second check should be performed three to four weeks after the split to find a new, laying queen or fresh eggs. A tight, consistent brood pattern, with new eggs standing upright in the cells, signals a successful mating and the start of a healthy new colony.
Signs of failure include a loud, frantic “queenless roar” when the hive is opened, or scattered, multiple eggs in a single cell, which indicates a laying worker situation. If a laying queen is not found after four weeks, the split has likely failed. The beekeeper should then consider combining the failing split with a weaker, queenright colony using the newspaper method. Alternatively, they can introduce a purchased, mated queen or a new, ripe queen cell to save the population.