BEST PRACTICES FOR A TRADITIONAL
WALK-AWAY SPLIT
This is the part that most people will find
difficult to determine, but Jason had some
killer insight for us. Each individual hive
will have its own personality and strength.
Inspect your hives and look at the brood
cells after reversing your boxes, if there
are straight cells in the top box that means
the queen just laid eggs, and you’re ready
to split.
If you are not introducing a queen, you
will need to shake nurse bees into the new
hive in order to insure the small denizens
have adequate care (the more you shake
into the split hive, the better).
Some hives are “boomers” and can be split
two, three, four times per year… but for
me and Drew, as first year beekeepers,
the best practice is to split an
“overwintered” hive.
Use your USDA Zone as a gauge on when
to split your overwintered hives.
As I said earlier, I recently started
gardening … gardening and beekeeping go
together perfectly. When you have bees,
you don’t have to pollinate your squash
with a paintbrush.
Average Annual Extreme
Minimum Temperature
Omak
An added benefit when you garden and
beekeeper at the same time? You realize your
USDA grow zone’s “last frost” corresponds
almost exactly to the best time to start your
overwintered split.
In the Northwest, and everywhere actually,
you need to understand that when you split
a hive, you reduce its ability to produce
heat. So if you split too early, and it gets
below freezing, not only could you get chilled
brood… you could potentially lose both hives.
Honeyless and pollinating by hand.
A new hive, like a new plant, will not do well
in the frost… so the best time to split your
hives is the same time you’d plant your seeds.
Using your USDA grow zone will ensure the
most opportune time to split your hive… your
new bees will stay warm, and with the added
brood patty, they’ll really take off.
WALK-AWAY SPLIT:
DRAWING CONCLUSION
After talking with Jason from Harvest Lane
Honey, this is the split Drew and I are going
to try out next year, and the simplest of the
ways we found online. When considering
the split you need to make sure you have
the right equipment. A smoker for sure, a
bee suit if you are new (or braver than us)
and adequate knowledge.
Colville
Ponderay
Mead
Spokane
Coeur d’Alene
Moses Lake
Havre
Great Falls
Lewiston
BEE ZONES
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