WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.660 May I have your attention, please? The following 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:11.599 is not the real Jeff Fox review. If you create 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:17.379 more splits than a divorce lawyer, you might 00:00:17.379 --> 00:00:24.000 be a beekeeper. If you dream of your life ending 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:54.359 the same way as a drone bees, Welcome, welcome 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:57.020 to Be Love Beekeeping presented by our good friends 00:00:57.020 --> 00:01:01.200 at Man Lake. Today, our guest is Frank LaCotta, 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:03.780 and we'll be talking all about splitting your 00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:07.340 colonies. When to do it, why, and even how to 00:01:07.340 --> 00:01:11.079 do it. If you're a new beekeeper, this is vital 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:13.879 information. And if you're a seasoned pro, you 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:16.299 still may learn something from Frank's years 00:01:16.299 --> 00:01:20.920 of experience. But first, some honeybee fun facts. 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:25.000 Did you know? that honeybees have a sense of 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.900 smell 50 times more powerful than a dog? Did 00:01:29.900 --> 00:01:32.540 you know that honeybees can taste with their 00:01:32.540 --> 00:01:36.500 feet? Wait a minute, I'm not so sure about this 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:39.719 one. But what I'm reading here says the claws 00:01:39.719 --> 00:01:43.120 on a honeybee's foot are especially attuned to 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:47.000 salt. Did you know that honeybees like caffeine? 00:01:47.469 --> 00:01:49.829 Studies have shown that caffeine consumption 00:01:49.829 --> 00:01:53.090 actually improves honeybee's memory and learning 00:01:53.090 --> 00:01:57.030 capabilities. And finally, did you know that 00:01:57.030 --> 00:02:00.469 a queen bee's stinger is smooth, unlike a worker 00:02:00.469 --> 00:02:03.590 bee's which is barbed? This allows her to sting 00:02:03.590 --> 00:02:07.159 multiple times and survive. I'd always been told 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:10.780 that queens don't sting and it's true, they rarely 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:13.939 sting people. They primarily use their stingers 00:02:13.939 --> 00:02:17.419 to defend themselves or to be aggressive against 00:02:17.419 --> 00:02:20.819 other queen bees, especially rival queens. And 00:02:20.819 --> 00:02:22.979 that's why their stingers are designed to sting 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:26.039 multiple times without it killing them. Before 00:02:26.039 --> 00:02:28.639 we jump into it, I'd like to give a quick shout 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:31.719 out to V2B Health for their support of this podcast. 00:02:32.379 --> 00:02:35.599 Vita's Varroa Control range of products includes 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:40.379 Apistan, Apigard, and now Veroxan Extended Release 00:02:40.379 --> 00:02:44.840 Oxalic Acid Strips. Thanks guys. Now, let's have 00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:50.599 a chat with Frank. I'd like to welcome to the 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:53.180 show today, Frank LaCotta, coming to us all the 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:56.280 way from, are you in Pennsylvania? Yes, I'm in 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:59.580 Northeastern Pennsylvania. Well, it looks like 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:02.379 you're in a beautiful cabin. I'm just trying 00:03:02.379 --> 00:03:05.800 to picture the snow, the mountains, that kind 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:09.719 of stuff. But it's springtime. Right. That's 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:12.599 long gone. And today we're talking about a spring 00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:17.560 subject, which is splits. Everybody's heard about 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.620 this. Some people are experts at this. Some people 00:03:20.620 --> 00:03:23.599 are new to beekeeping that are listening and 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:26.340 have no idea what we're talking about. So, Frank, 00:03:26.379 --> 00:03:29.560 being the expert that you are and you were with 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:32.330 Man Lake for years, weren't you? I was with Man 00:03:32.330 --> 00:03:35.509 Lake for about just over 10 years. It was actually 00:03:35.509 --> 00:03:39.110 the twilight of my career. I was working on Wall 00:03:39.110 --> 00:03:41.469 Street, pretty much a financial district most 00:03:41.469 --> 00:03:45.129 of my career. That's an adjustment. Yes. Wow. 00:03:46.129 --> 00:03:48.969 Congratulations. Thanks. I want to start with 00:03:48.969 --> 00:03:51.710 the first part of what's going on with splits. 00:03:51.830 --> 00:03:55.069 And the first question that I have for those 00:03:55.069 --> 00:03:58.490 that don't know, why do we want to do a split? 00:03:58.930 --> 00:04:02.240 And when is a good time? Okay, the reason why 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:06.280 we want to do a split is bees have this natural 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:10.639 instinct to propagate themselves. One way of 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:12.460 doing that, they have a few ways, but one way 00:04:12.460 --> 00:04:17.459 is by swarming, where that's where 60 % of the 00:04:17.459 --> 00:04:20.220 bees in the old queen actually leave the hive. 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:22.920 That's where you see them hanging on that post 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:27.959 or that bush or that house or whatever. the foragers 00:04:27.959 --> 00:04:30.500 or the scouts go out and find a new location. 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:36.160 That is something that happens almost with every 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:39.000 overwintered hive. So I tell most beekeepers, 00:04:39.459 --> 00:04:42.480 if you have an overwintered hive is almost for 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:44.759 sure going to swarm on you in the springtime. 00:04:45.019 --> 00:04:47.860 The ramifications of that are you lose your queen. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.259 You may or may not get a new queen based on if 00:04:51.259 --> 00:04:53.899 she, the new queens are raising fly out and they 00:04:53.899 --> 00:04:57.139 may make it back. Okay. but it sets your hive 00:04:57.139 --> 00:05:00.639 back, of course. So you may or may not get any 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:02.199 spring honey. You might get a little bit. You 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:04.339 might get none because it takes him a while to 00:05:04.339 --> 00:05:09.199 build up again. So as a beekeeper, we want to 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:12.300 take control of that. Rather than let those bees 00:05:12.300 --> 00:05:17.620 swarm, we do what we call a split, which we do 00:05:17.620 --> 00:05:20.980 it right. The bees believe they swarmed and we 00:05:20.980 --> 00:05:22.819 can control those splits to the point where we 00:05:22.819 --> 00:05:26.269 do not lose our bees. Better for us. to lose 00:05:26.269 --> 00:05:29.670 the bee or to keep the bees with that split than 00:05:29.670 --> 00:05:32.149 to lose them in a tree or, you know, wherever. 00:05:32.670 --> 00:05:35.589 And frankly, it can be better for the bees, too, 00:05:36.050 --> 00:05:39.209 because a lot of swarms that leave don't live. 00:05:39.829 --> 00:05:41.850 Absolutely true. If they can't find a place to 00:05:41.850 --> 00:05:45.029 make that new home or they don't have time to 00:05:45.029 --> 00:05:47.209 build up, depending what time of year they leave. 00:05:47.850 --> 00:05:51.490 Yes, those swarms just may not make it. So for 00:05:51.490 --> 00:05:55.040 us and as good beekeepers, It behooves us to 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:59.459 do these splits because we can replace our winter 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:03.199 losses, our dead outs with these splits. We can 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:05.800 grow our apiary if that's what we choose to do, 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:08.759 or you may just make a nuke out of that split 00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:10.519 and sell it off and make some money back. We 00:06:10.519 --> 00:06:13.199 know that beekeeping is not cheap. So there are 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:15.980 a lot of reasons that we want to do that. Yeah, 00:06:15.980 --> 00:06:18.019 it's good all the way around. All right, let's 00:06:18.019 --> 00:06:21.339 talk about wind. I mean, you and I are in colder 00:06:21.339 --> 00:06:24.819 climates, but Some people in the US, and we have 00:06:24.819 --> 00:06:28.180 listeners all over the world, if you're in an 00:06:28.180 --> 00:06:31.600 even warmer climate, you may be past the best 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:34.480 time to split already. If you're in a cold climate, 00:06:34.839 --> 00:06:37.240 it's coming right up. Well, I'll agree with you 00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:39.779 somewhat on that. We might be too late. We may 00:06:39.779 --> 00:06:41.639 not, because there's another time of year when 00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:44.480 we can make splits. But we'll get to that. But 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:48.100 spring splits, you're right. We want to get into 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:53.100 our bees when the weather is warm enough for 00:06:53.100 --> 00:06:54.860 us to go in there and start checking brood, right? 00:06:55.060 --> 00:06:56.920 That's what we're going to take survey of what's 00:06:56.920 --> 00:06:59.240 going on in that hive. And we're going to look 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:01.660 for a few things. The main thing is congestion 00:07:01.660 --> 00:07:05.939 in that colony. Congestion is not how many bees 00:07:05.939 --> 00:07:09.040 are in there. It's when that queen starts running 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:12.500 out of space to lay eggs because they're bringing 00:07:12.500 --> 00:07:14.519 in a lot of wet nectar. You'll see in that brood 00:07:14.519 --> 00:07:17.060 nest, it's filled with wet nectar and a lot of 00:07:17.060 --> 00:07:20.240 brood. Once they get that, that can trigger the 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:23.459 swarm instinct. So as beekeepers, we're going 00:07:23.459 --> 00:07:24.939 to go in there, we're going to monitor that, 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:27.759 right? And we're going to see how much cap brood 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:29.639 they have in there, that brood nest is growing, 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:32.720 how many bees are in there, how much room is 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:37.579 in the brood area for those bees. And that's 00:07:37.579 --> 00:07:39.519 when we're going to determine when we want to 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:42.579 make those splits. We don't typically want to 00:07:42.579 --> 00:07:44.399 wait till the bees start thinking, hey, I'm going 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:47.120 to swarm and start making swarm cells. We want 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:51.199 to do it before that. For instance, in my area, 00:07:51.319 --> 00:07:54.740 usually about the 15th of April, I know I have 00:07:54.740 --> 00:07:57.459 to go in there and start checking brood, right? 00:07:57.720 --> 00:08:00.000 Because the bees need a few things, obviously. 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:02.740 They need some brood going before they're going 00:08:02.740 --> 00:08:06.379 to swarm. They also need drones. They will not 00:08:06.379 --> 00:08:08.519 swarm without drones. They need drones, obviously, 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:12.100 for those virgin queens they're making. So we 00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:14.920 look at those drones. When we start seeing drones 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:19.019 in that colony and a lot of brood, a lot of bees, 00:08:19.500 --> 00:08:22.930 congestion, then we know it's time to maybe make 00:08:22.930 --> 00:08:25.769 that split before the bees do it. So why don't 00:08:25.769 --> 00:08:28.569 we wait to see swarm cells before we do that? 00:08:29.029 --> 00:08:32.730 Well, the problem with that is if you wait too 00:08:32.730 --> 00:08:36.570 long and they have capped swarm cells, you can 00:08:36.570 --> 00:08:38.990 come in and make that split no matter what, or 00:08:38.990 --> 00:08:40.769 you cut those swarm cells out, which is what 00:08:40.769 --> 00:08:44.090 a lot of people do. If there's one capped swarm 00:08:44.090 --> 00:08:46.590 cell in there, the bees are going to swarm anyway 00:08:46.590 --> 00:08:50.519 on you. And now you've got what we call a hopelessly 00:08:50.519 --> 00:08:52.980 queenless condition, which is something very 00:08:52.980 --> 00:08:55.379 common to new beekeepers. They don't realize 00:08:55.379 --> 00:08:57.440 that they think cutting out all those swarm cells 00:08:57.440 --> 00:09:00.960 will stop them. It won't in a lot of cases. So 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:03.460 it's better for us to be proactive and make that 00:09:03.460 --> 00:09:06.259 split. We can always rejoin that split with the 00:09:06.259 --> 00:09:08.679 mother call me later if we want. All right. So 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:12.250 we've talked about timing. I know a lot of beekeepers 00:09:12.250 --> 00:09:15.950 go online and they look at videos and they see 00:09:15.950 --> 00:09:18.970 all kinds of different sorts of splitting techniques 00:09:18.970 --> 00:09:22.590 that there are out there. I know you have a favorite. 00:09:23.230 --> 00:09:25.590 Will you tell us before you jump into your favorite? 00:09:25.809 --> 00:09:27.950 Just name some of the others that you know of. 00:09:28.309 --> 00:09:31.149 What options do we have? Well, there's walk away 00:09:31.149 --> 00:09:35.210 splits. There are the split that I do where I 00:09:35.210 --> 00:09:37.429 know where the queen is. The walk away is one 00:09:37.429 --> 00:09:39.250 where you don't know which box the queen is in. 00:09:39.789 --> 00:09:42.590 let the bees make their own. You basically just 00:09:42.590 --> 00:09:45.830 split the hive in half, right? Right. Or you 00:09:45.830 --> 00:09:47.389 can, you know, there are other ways where you 00:09:47.389 --> 00:09:49.970 actually just pull enough brood and nurse bees 00:09:49.970 --> 00:09:52.970 off to make a nuke and replace the comb you pulled 00:09:52.970 --> 00:09:55.789 with drawn comb, not foundation, into the mother 00:09:55.789 --> 00:09:58.889 colony and, and let the bees, you know, continue 00:09:58.889 --> 00:10:00.950 on. You just pull that nuke off. You may add 00:10:00.950 --> 00:10:04.409 a queen to it. You may just have a young one 00:10:04.409 --> 00:10:06.529 day old larva in there where let the bees make 00:10:06.529 --> 00:10:08.870 their own in that nuke. There are a lot of ways 00:10:08.870 --> 00:10:11.809 to do it. If you get a hive that you're too late 00:10:11.809 --> 00:10:13.809 and it's got all kinds of queen cells in there, 00:10:13.909 --> 00:10:16.950 cap queen cells, you can pull out a couple of 00:10:16.950 --> 00:10:18.809 frames, three frames and put it in a new box. 00:10:18.929 --> 00:10:20.730 Another three, put it in another, you could split 00:10:20.730 --> 00:10:24.149 that colony up into three, four or five nukes 00:10:24.149 --> 00:10:27.570 and then wait a month, see which ones made queens. 00:10:27.669 --> 00:10:29.570 If they didn't, you could rejoin the ones that 00:10:29.570 --> 00:10:32.149 didn't, but the ones that did. So there are a 00:10:32.149 --> 00:10:36.029 lot of options and making nukes and splits is 00:10:36.029 --> 00:10:38.570 much easier than the average beekeeper thinks. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:42.299 Really really easy and I love your simple method 00:10:42.299 --> 00:10:45.379 and I think you called it the easy split or something 00:10:45.379 --> 00:10:49.000 like that Also a shakedown split. Yeah Something 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:51.200 I forget what it there's all kinds of names for 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:54.159 it. You can trademark it make t -shirts if you 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:57.480 want. Yeah Well, I didn't invent it. I've seen 00:10:57.480 --> 00:10:59.840 it. I saw it somewhere else as well when I was 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:03.480 much younger I just call it the the shake split 00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:06.740 because the simplest way to describe it is we've 00:11:06.740 --> 00:11:10.100 got it in this case, say two deeps and the bees, 00:11:10.379 --> 00:11:12.279 we've got a lot of bees. We've got a lot of brood. 00:11:12.299 --> 00:11:14.639 They are absolutely thinking, you know, getting 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:16.120 to the point where they're going to think about 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:19.720 swarming. Where's my queen? I don't want to pull 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:22.500 every single frame looking for my queen. What 00:11:22.500 --> 00:11:24.860 I'll do typically is I'll balance those boxes. 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:27.840 So I'm going to, maybe the day before I'm going 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:30.480 to make that split, I'm going to go through there 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:32.639 and I'm going to make sure that I have some very, 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.820 very young larva in the top box, mostly open. 00:11:36.869 --> 00:11:39.730 brood, but I want a couple of very young ones. 00:11:39.809 --> 00:11:41.789 And I'm going to have a couple of frames of cat 00:11:41.789 --> 00:11:43.809 brood in there as well. The reason why I want 00:11:43.809 --> 00:11:45.669 the young larva in there is because that's where 00:11:45.669 --> 00:11:48.070 the nurse bees are going to go to and take care 00:11:48.070 --> 00:11:51.850 of. So I prep my boxes the day ahead. I wait 00:11:51.850 --> 00:11:54.370 a day and I come back. By prepping, you mean 00:11:54.370 --> 00:11:57.049 you're actually moving frames around so that 00:11:57.049 --> 00:11:59.610 your top box looks like this thing that you're 00:11:59.610 --> 00:12:01.990 explaining. Correct. I want to put the majority 00:12:01.990 --> 00:12:04.309 of the majority of my cat brood in the bottom 00:12:04.309 --> 00:12:07.190 box. and the majority of my open brood in the 00:12:07.190 --> 00:12:10.590 top box. And I'm going to come back the next 00:12:10.590 --> 00:12:13.629 day and I'm going to have an extra empty box 00:12:13.629 --> 00:12:16.110 sitting on the ground next to me. I'm going to 00:12:16.110 --> 00:12:19.610 pull every frame out of the top box, shake those 00:12:19.610 --> 00:12:21.929 bees off of it, look it over just to make sure 00:12:21.929 --> 00:12:24.509 that queen's not on there, put it in that box 00:12:24.509 --> 00:12:26.450 on the ground. I'll do that with every frame 00:12:26.450 --> 00:12:30.649 until that top box is empty. All my frames are 00:12:30.649 --> 00:12:33.009 in the box in the ground. They contain nothing 00:12:33.009 --> 00:12:36.750 but honey and all kinds of brood, whether it 00:12:36.750 --> 00:12:39.950 be eggs, larva, cat brood. That's it. Maybe, 00:12:40.009 --> 00:12:41.950 you know, the occasional bee is still on there, 00:12:42.330 --> 00:12:44.889 but the queen certainly isn't. I'm going to take 00:12:44.889 --> 00:12:47.610 the top box on that hive, shake it, whatever 00:12:47.610 --> 00:12:49.649 bees are on the inside of that box, shake them 00:12:49.649 --> 00:12:52.929 all down. Take that box off. Now I've got a single 00:12:52.929 --> 00:12:56.909 bee and a lot of bees in there. I have my smoker 00:12:56.909 --> 00:12:59.950 going. If I lightly smoke those bees, they're 00:12:59.950 --> 00:13:02.899 all going to go down into that bottom box. I'm 00:13:02.899 --> 00:13:05.059 going to put a queen excluder on top of there 00:13:05.059 --> 00:13:07.299 and take that box from the ground with all the 00:13:07.299 --> 00:13:09.919 brood, put it back on top of that colony and 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:13.480 close it up. And I'm going to leave it overnight. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:17.139 What's going to happen is with all that open 00:13:17.139 --> 00:13:19.720 brood up top, all the nurse bees are going to 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:22.259 go up to that box. And that's what I want for 00:13:22.259 --> 00:13:24.779 that split, those nurse bees. And I know my queen 00:13:24.779 --> 00:13:26.759 is down in the bottom box. She's under the queen 00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:29.240 excluder. So I'm going to come back the next 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:31.279 day. I'm going to have my hive stand ready to 00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:34.440 go. my bottom board, my lids, I'm going to take 00:13:34.440 --> 00:13:36.620 that box off, I'm going to move it over to the 00:13:36.620 --> 00:13:40.419 new location, and the mother colony that I took 00:13:40.419 --> 00:13:42.639 that box from, I'm going to remove the queen 00:13:42.639 --> 00:13:45.000 excluder and put another deep on top of that 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:47.960 box. So now the bees have room to expand up into 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:50.179 there. The swarm instinct or pressure has been 00:13:50.179 --> 00:13:52.580 taken off that mother colony and now I've got 00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:57.320 a second colony. Let me just take a minute here 00:13:57.320 --> 00:14:00.570 to thank our presenting sponsor, Man Lake. One 00:14:00.570 --> 00:14:02.669 of the things I love about Man Lake is their 00:14:02.669 --> 00:14:05.830 commitment to education because that commitment 00:14:05.830 --> 00:14:08.490 shows how much they want you to be successful 00:14:08.490 --> 00:14:11.659 at beekeeping. One great resource is their mobile 00:14:11.659 --> 00:14:14.779 app. You know, it's not just for shopping. It's 00:14:14.779 --> 00:14:17.679 packed full of all kinds of helpful information, 00:14:18.100 --> 00:14:21.720 including videos, articles, plus a plant identification 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:24.600 feature designed to help beekeepers identify 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:27.059 and plant bee healthy plants for their area. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:30.480 It's free, so download the Man Lake app today. 00:14:31.139 --> 00:14:33.460 And speaking of shopping, don't forget your discount 00:14:33.460 --> 00:14:37.360 code MLBlove10. It's in the show notes. For $10 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:41.679 off your first $100 dollar purchase. Now, back 00:14:41.679 --> 00:15:10.049 to the guest. most of the day and put that in 00:15:10.049 --> 00:15:13.330 near the end of the day into that new split and 00:15:13.330 --> 00:15:15.529 let them get used to that queen and let her out, 00:15:15.529 --> 00:15:17.750 you know, five, six days later. Now I've got 00:15:17.750 --> 00:15:19.669 two functioning colonies with laying queens. 00:15:20.110 --> 00:15:22.809 If I let the bees raise the queen, it's fine, 00:15:22.990 --> 00:15:26.450 but it's going to take another 30 days before 00:15:26.450 --> 00:15:29.129 she's back in laying. And if there's any issues 00:15:29.129 --> 00:15:32.149 with her not making it back to the colony, well, 00:15:32.169 --> 00:15:34.049 then I've got to start again or I could rejoin 00:15:34.049 --> 00:15:36.669 that with the original hive. So I tend to buy 00:15:36.669 --> 00:15:39.889 queens myself in the springtime. Is it true that 00:15:39.889 --> 00:15:42.669 split that you've just talked about making that 00:15:42.669 --> 00:15:44.889 you're going to put someplace else, does it really 00:15:44.889 --> 00:15:47.909 need to be two to three miles away? No, we're 00:15:47.909 --> 00:15:51.450 moving mostly nurse bees across. So the nurse 00:15:51.450 --> 00:15:53.529 bees have never left the colony. As long as there's 00:15:53.529 --> 00:15:56.370 a queen in there, they'll stay. Any foragers 00:15:56.370 --> 00:15:58.690 you moved in with that colony, they'll fly out. 00:15:58.710 --> 00:16:01.759 They'll come back to the mother colony. What 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:04.000 I tend to do to ensure that a lot of bees stay 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:06.919 in there and they don't drift out I will close 00:16:06.919 --> 00:16:09.220 that hive up for a couple of days I'll put that 00:16:09.220 --> 00:16:11.759 queen in there and then I'll stuff the entrance 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:15.059 of my hive with grass I'll pull grass and stuff 00:16:15.059 --> 00:16:17.740 the entrance closed, you know, it's usually the 00:16:17.740 --> 00:16:19.159 springtime. It's cool enough They're not gonna 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:21.620 overheat in there. I've got a feeder on there 00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:24.679 so they're able to get syrup and After two three 00:16:24.679 --> 00:16:27.559 days that grass naturally will wilt on its own 00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:30.139 and the bees will start coming and going By then, 00:16:30.139 --> 00:16:32.539 they've established that this is their hive. 00:16:32.580 --> 00:16:35.460 They won't drift back to the mother colony. If 00:16:35.460 --> 00:16:40.320 you didn't put a new queen in that box, then 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:42.539 are you in the same situation or are you going 00:16:42.539 --> 00:16:44.340 to start losing nurse bees or are they going 00:16:44.340 --> 00:16:46.840 to be patient for a month? I would do the same 00:16:46.840 --> 00:16:48.960 thing. I would close it up with grass, but I 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:51.159 would absolutely make sure I've got syrup in 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:54.059 there and at least a few frames if I'm going 00:16:54.059 --> 00:16:56.620 to let them raise a queen. I want a few frames 00:16:56.620 --> 00:16:59.480 with a lot of pollen in there because To raise 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:02.059 a queen, they've got to make royal jelly. Royal 00:17:02.059 --> 00:17:04.720 jelly comes from a gland in those bees, in the 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:07.420 nurse bee's head. But to make royal jelly, they 00:17:07.420 --> 00:17:11.039 must consume bee bread. Bee bread is a mixture 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:13.900 of pollen and nectar. So I'm going to make sure 00:17:13.900 --> 00:17:15.960 they have plenty of both, if I'm going to let 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:18.480 them raise a queen. And after, they'll start 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:20.480 raising a queen almost immediately. Within a 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:22.200 few hours, they know they're queen -less, they'll 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:25.039 start raising a queen. So after a day or so, 00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:26.960 when that grass starts swelting, they're not 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:28.660 going anywhere. They're staying in that colony. 00:17:29.559 --> 00:17:32.500 I have a lot of success doing that. I rarely 00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:35.460 lose colonies when I do that. And they don't 00:17:35.460 --> 00:17:38.759 need to be two to three miles apart. No, because 00:17:38.759 --> 00:17:41.519 most people, let's be honest, I happen to have 00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:44.579 12 or 13 different locations, but the average 00:17:44.579 --> 00:17:46.559 hobby beekeeper does not. They have one place, 00:17:46.940 --> 00:17:50.180 one apiary. So no, all you have to do is close 00:17:50.180 --> 00:17:53.299 it up. Close the hive up for a few days. I'm 00:17:53.299 --> 00:17:56.130 glad to hear that. You mentioned another time 00:17:56.130 --> 00:17:58.549 of year that's also good for doing splits. Let's 00:17:58.549 --> 00:18:01.990 talk about that. All right. So we all know we 00:18:01.990 --> 00:18:04.789 could do a spring split and people do it a lot. 00:18:05.390 --> 00:18:08.230 But the other time we could do it that I do it 00:18:08.230 --> 00:18:12.430 is when the nectar flow is in full, you know, 00:18:12.529 --> 00:18:15.609 raging, which in my area is June. They're bringing 00:18:15.609 --> 00:18:17.809 in a lot of nectar. I've got a lot of bees in 00:18:17.809 --> 00:18:20.730 that colony. And I go back to this is when I 00:18:20.730 --> 00:18:24.440 make my my nukes to overwinter. I overwinter 00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:28.700 a lot of nukes. So to do that, I got thinking 00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:31.599 about it one time and I thought, well, my nectar 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:35.819 flows over the first week of July. It takes from 00:18:35.819 --> 00:18:39.299 egg to emerging bee is 21 days. Once that bee 00:18:39.299 --> 00:18:42.019 emerges, it's another 21 days before it becomes 00:18:42.019 --> 00:18:46.660 a forager. So any larva or egg that's laid in 00:18:46.660 --> 00:18:49.539 the first to second week of June, By the time 00:18:49.539 --> 00:18:52.839 that becomes a forager, my flow is over. So what 00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:56.119 I will do is I'll go into those colonies about 00:18:56.119 --> 00:19:00.500 the second week of June, and I'll pull off almost 00:19:00.500 --> 00:19:03.660 all the open brood. I'll take it with the nurse 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:05.980 bees on there, and I'll make a lot of five -frame 00:19:05.980 --> 00:19:09.819 nucs. And I may take, out of every hive, I could 00:19:09.819 --> 00:19:12.700 make maybe two, maybe one and a half. And you 00:19:12.700 --> 00:19:15.720 can combine frames from multiple colonies into 00:19:15.720 --> 00:19:18.130 one nuc box. It doesn't matter. And I'm going 00:19:18.130 --> 00:19:21.029 to shake a lot of bees in there, a lot of bees 00:19:21.029 --> 00:19:23.569 into those nucs. Anything that's a forager is 00:19:23.569 --> 00:19:25.029 going to fly out and come back to the mother 00:19:25.029 --> 00:19:28.950 colony. So what I end up with is I end up with 00:19:28.950 --> 00:19:32.990 my mother colony has almost no open brood in 00:19:32.990 --> 00:19:35.289 it. So all the nectar they're bringing in is 00:19:35.289 --> 00:19:38.470 going up to honey production. And my nucs, you 00:19:38.470 --> 00:19:40.289 know, they've got open brood and I'm feeding 00:19:40.289 --> 00:19:43.950 them. And what I've done, which I don't want 00:19:43.950 --> 00:19:46.950 to buy queens this time of year, I can let the 00:19:46.950 --> 00:19:50.150 bees raise their own, but what I tend to do is 00:19:50.150 --> 00:19:53.529 I graft a lot of queens. So I usually, by using 00:19:53.529 --> 00:19:56.349 the calendar and planning out my work, I have 00:19:56.349 --> 00:19:59.349 ripe queen cells ready when I do this. So I just 00:19:59.349 --> 00:20:01.750 come through, I wait half a day after I got these 00:20:01.750 --> 00:20:04.210 nukes all set up, and I go through and I drop 00:20:04.210 --> 00:20:06.769 in ripe queen cells that are gonna hatch in a 00:20:06.769 --> 00:20:09.210 day or two. And that's how I do it. You know, 00:20:09.230 --> 00:20:12.069 I might make 100 of them, and out of those 100, 00:20:12.740 --> 00:20:15.740 Maybe 60 to 70 of them are successful in a month. 00:20:15.740 --> 00:20:17.799 They have a laying queen. The other ones, I just 00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:19.519 combine them back with another hive. It doesn't 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:23.559 matter. So what I've done is I've taken the pressure 00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:26.460 off the mother colony to feed all these bees, 00:20:27.220 --> 00:20:30.000 moved it to a nuke. So my mother colony is doing 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:33.400 nothing but putting up honey. And these nukes 00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:36.099 are raising queens or, you know, and they're 00:20:36.099 --> 00:20:37.980 starting to lay. You know, she'll go out there, 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:40.779 she'll mate, she'll lay. And those nukes, by 00:20:40.779 --> 00:20:43.309 the time I get into fall, they're going to be 00:20:43.309 --> 00:20:46.710 a double nuke, a 5 over 5 nuke. And I can take 00:20:46.710 --> 00:20:49.609 those through the wintertime. So it's almost 00:20:49.609 --> 00:20:52.869 like an insurance policy for me, in that if I 00:20:52.869 --> 00:20:54.869 lose a lot of bees in the wintertime, I've got 00:20:54.869 --> 00:20:57.289 all these nukes. So if I go into winter, instead 00:20:57.289 --> 00:21:00.329 of going in with my normal 200 colonies, if I 00:21:00.329 --> 00:21:04.329 go in with 200 colonies and 100 nukes or 50 nukes, 00:21:04.369 --> 00:21:06.809 no matter what I lose, I've still got enough 00:21:06.809 --> 00:21:09.450 bees to have my 200 colonies come spring, because 00:21:09.450 --> 00:21:11.630 we all lose bees in the wintertime. We know that. 00:21:11.950 --> 00:21:15.210 You make this all sound really simple it actually 00:21:15.210 --> 00:21:18.789 is And I appreciate it, but I know it can't be 00:21:18.789 --> 00:21:21.430 that simple It is are there things that I need 00:21:21.430 --> 00:21:24.009 to look out for mistakes that maybe I should 00:21:24.009 --> 00:21:27.730 avoid well Yeah, I mean I would say the most 00:21:27.730 --> 00:21:30.769 common mistake I see people do is when they make 00:21:30.769 --> 00:21:34.650 a nuke They don't shake enough bees into that 00:21:34.650 --> 00:21:38.410 nuke because they get no they get a lot of foragers 00:21:38.410 --> 00:21:39.930 in there that happen to be on the frame when 00:21:39.930 --> 00:21:43.180 they pull it and those foragers fly back. You 00:21:43.180 --> 00:21:46.180 need enough bees to keep that nuke, the brood 00:21:46.180 --> 00:21:50.420 warm in there. So you should, you know, obviously 00:21:50.420 --> 00:21:53.900 it's much better if you either find your queen 00:21:53.900 --> 00:21:56.740 so you don't shake her into that nuke box. So 00:21:56.740 --> 00:21:58.740 you want to find her. Once you've got her frame, 00:21:58.900 --> 00:22:01.000 I'll go through that colony and I'll find that 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:03.319 frame. I'll have an empty nuke box on the side 00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:05.140 and put just that frame in it with that queen 00:22:05.140 --> 00:22:07.700 so I know where she is. Now I could shake a lot 00:22:07.700 --> 00:22:10.609 of bees into that nuke I just made. The foragers 00:22:10.609 --> 00:22:13.289 fly back. That's fine. The nurse bees stay there. 00:22:13.549 --> 00:22:15.289 When I'm all done, I take that queen frame and 00:22:15.289 --> 00:22:17.730 put her back in. I know she's in the mother colony, 00:22:17.890 --> 00:22:20.190 and I know she's not in any of the nukes I made. 00:22:20.529 --> 00:22:22.450 So that would probably be the biggest mistake 00:22:22.450 --> 00:22:24.910 people make is they do not put enough bees in 00:22:24.910 --> 00:22:27.750 that box. And they should, being that they're 00:22:27.750 --> 00:22:30.690 weak, feed them syrup, feed them sugar water. 00:22:30.890 --> 00:22:32.930 Don't give them, you give them a frame of honey. 00:22:33.549 --> 00:22:35.650 Bees don't raise brood off of honey. They raise 00:22:35.650 --> 00:22:38.609 brood off of nectar. They make wax off of nectar. 00:22:39.130 --> 00:22:44.950 So... It's really quite simple. When I was much 00:22:44.950 --> 00:22:47.410 younger, I thought it was this big complicated 00:22:47.410 --> 00:22:50.190 thing and my mentor showed me and I was like, 00:22:50.210 --> 00:22:54.089 wow, that's all there is to it. And from then 00:22:54.089 --> 00:22:57.690 on, I've never been out of these. And by the 00:22:57.690 --> 00:23:00.349 way, you've got a good YouTube video on this 00:23:00.349 --> 00:23:02.950 and I don't very often recommend YouTube videos 00:23:02.950 --> 00:23:05.630 because there's a lot of bad ones as well as 00:23:05.630 --> 00:23:08.930 the good ones out there. If people want to actually 00:23:08.930 --> 00:23:12.690 see how you do this very simple split is it just 00:23:12.690 --> 00:23:15.750 under Frank locata or is it under man Lake? It's 00:23:15.750 --> 00:23:19.450 under man Lake And my I don't believe on these 00:23:19.450 --> 00:23:22.910 I think it shows two boxes one might be purple 00:23:22.910 --> 00:23:25.490 on the ground, you know two different high bodies 00:23:25.490 --> 00:23:27.549 that's the start of it says making a split or 00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:30.549 something and Yeah, it shows it easy and I tend 00:23:30.549 --> 00:23:33.789 in my in my YouTube videos. I tend to not put 00:23:33.789 --> 00:23:36.460 a lot of Fluff around everything I get right 00:23:36.460 --> 00:23:38.579 to the point. I don't want people to be bored 00:23:38.579 --> 00:23:40.900 I'm just gonna do it quick and hopefully they 00:23:40.900 --> 00:23:44.319 see how easy it is I just pulled up the video. 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:46.900 It is a purple box on the bottom and a yellow 00:23:46.900 --> 00:23:49.259 one on top Yeah, there you go. So if you find 00:23:49.259 --> 00:23:51.440 that you've got the right one. That's right. 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:55.160 It's under the man Lake Channel Okay Love it 00:23:55.160 --> 00:23:57.700 anything else we need to know about splits. I 00:23:57.700 --> 00:24:00.539 swear you've made it simpler than anyone I've 00:24:00.539 --> 00:24:04.000 ever heard before it is very easy and you know 00:24:03.900 --> 00:24:08.039 All I think is people need to, you know, don't 00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:10.980 just watch me. Watch 10 other people on there 00:24:10.980 --> 00:24:14.339 as well on YouTube. Read a few things and take 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:16.359 the best of everything and put it together. That's 00:24:16.359 --> 00:24:18.960 what I did my whole career is I wouldn't just 00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:20.960 listen to one person because we all do things 00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:23.759 differently. I'd watch people, I'd listen to 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:26.359 people and I would try different things. I would 00:24:26.359 --> 00:24:28.440 make one split this way, one another way and 00:24:28.440 --> 00:24:30.579 see which one worked out. The only way you learn 00:24:30.579 --> 00:24:33.099 to be keeping is to make a lot of mistakes. You 00:24:33.099 --> 00:24:35.660 don't learn by being successful. You learn by 00:24:35.660 --> 00:24:38.480 making mistakes your first five, 10 years, then 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:41.059 you become successful. So do you mean at this 00:24:41.059 --> 00:24:42.859 point, I'm not going to make any more mistakes 00:24:42.859 --> 00:24:45.519 because I've passed 10 years now? No, because 00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:47.380 I've been in it over 20 years and I still make 00:24:47.380 --> 00:24:50.940 mistakes. So we never stop. Oh, there's so much 00:24:50.940 --> 00:24:53.140 to learn. And that's part of what I love about 00:24:53.140 --> 00:24:56.380 it. There is. Yep. And then things change all 00:24:56.380 --> 00:24:58.750 the time. You know, things I used to do. Even 00:24:58.750 --> 00:25:00.670 10 years ago, I don't do anymore. I do something 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:03.730 different. So keep learning. Yeah, I love the 00:25:03.730 --> 00:25:06.529 intuitiveness of it. As you were talking about, 00:25:06.809 --> 00:25:09.869 look at 10 different videos and then use your 00:25:09.869 --> 00:25:12.470 own intuition. Try to be in tune with your bees 00:25:12.470 --> 00:25:15.089 to know enough, right? What's going to work best 00:25:15.089 --> 00:25:18.069 for them, right? What I do in Pennsylvania may 00:25:18.069 --> 00:25:21.630 not work in Texas and vice versa. So you've also 00:25:21.630 --> 00:25:25.150 got to take your location into account and yeah. 00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:27.160 I always tell people, try everything. That's 00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:28.819 why it's always good to have a couple of nukes 00:25:28.819 --> 00:25:32.380 to play with. Because if these are your, what 00:25:32.380 --> 00:25:35.299 I call production bees, or your only two colonies, 00:25:35.420 --> 00:25:37.779 you're not going to experiment at all. But if 00:25:37.779 --> 00:25:39.299 you have your two colonies and you got a couple 00:25:39.299 --> 00:25:41.400 of nukes on the side, play with them. That's 00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:45.220 how you learn. Sounds great. Okay. It's time 00:25:45.220 --> 00:25:47.460 for you to give us a wild and crazy story. Have 00:25:47.460 --> 00:25:51.539 you thought of one yet? Well, yeah, we all like 00:25:51.539 --> 00:25:55.309 to... have videos of us standing there with no 00:25:55.309 --> 00:25:57.589 protective gear on going in our colonies, you 00:25:57.589 --> 00:26:00.109 know, and we know that, okay, this time of year, 00:26:00.210 --> 00:26:03.069 the bees are - Don't do it. No, don't do it. 00:26:03.269 --> 00:26:04.809 I, you know, I was like that at one time and 00:26:04.809 --> 00:26:08.529 my, my experience was, so I needed a frame with 00:26:08.529 --> 00:26:11.289 some eggs on it. So I stopped it in a beer and 00:26:11.289 --> 00:26:15.210 I thought, I'm not lighting my smoker and I'm 00:26:15.210 --> 00:26:17.089 not going to wear my gear. I'm just going to 00:26:17.089 --> 00:26:19.529 pop the lid real quick and just ease out a frame. 00:26:20.230 --> 00:26:24.500 So I went to the hive. and pulled one out. The 00:26:24.500 --> 00:26:26.420 bees were calm, pulled one out. There's no eggs 00:26:26.420 --> 00:26:29.000 on there. Put it back in, pulled the next one. 00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:30.920 There was none there. And the bees are starting 00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:33.299 to come up through the frames. Pulled the third 00:26:33.299 --> 00:26:35.559 one out, none in there. And just as I'm putting 00:26:35.559 --> 00:26:39.059 it back, they just came at me in droves. I was 00:26:39.059 --> 00:26:42.420 running through, it was a big garden, my neighbor's 00:26:42.420 --> 00:26:44.779 farm. I was running through that field swatting 00:26:44.779 --> 00:26:47.359 and running and screaming. I think I got lit 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:52.369 up about 40 times that afternoon, but yeah. So, 00:26:53.150 --> 00:26:56.170 my takeaway from that was never assume that you 00:26:56.170 --> 00:26:57.869 can go in there without gear. I always have my 00:26:57.869 --> 00:27:01.029 jacket on now and ready to pull it up if they 00:27:01.029 --> 00:27:04.329 turn on me. Such great advice. Frank Licata, 00:27:04.470 --> 00:27:06.349 thanks so much. I really appreciate your time 00:27:06.349 --> 00:27:12.569 today. Sure, Eric. Thank you very much. Thanks 00:27:12.569 --> 00:27:14.769 again for joining us here on Be Love, Be Keeping 00:27:14.769 --> 00:27:18.160 presented by Man Lake. Hey, if you wouldn't mind, 00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:20.579 please take just a couple of seconds here to 00:27:20.579 --> 00:27:23.980 follow or subscribe to this show and to share 00:27:23.980 --> 00:27:27.640 it with a good friend. I got thinking. Have you 00:27:27.640 --> 00:27:29.619 ever wondered how much you actually love your 00:27:29.619 --> 00:27:33.359 bees? Tell you what, ask yourself this philosophical 00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:37.359 question for the day. Would I keep bees even 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:40.460 if they didn't provide me with honey? Ponder 00:27:40.460 --> 00:27:42.759 on that and we will see you next week.