Springtime in the Bee Yard: How to Split a Bee Colony

Spring has sprung and the bees are loving this warm weather! This time of year, nectar is flowing and the hive is growing as the queen builds up numbers by laying more and more baby bees. As beekeepers, now is generally when we split our healthy colonies. This is a perfect way to prevent swarming, lower mite levels, and make more bee hives! But how do you successfully split a hive? Let's break it down.

Step-by-Step: How to Split a Hive

1. Inspect the Hive
Open your hive and locate frames with brood, eggs, honey, and pollen. If possible, find the queen—but don’t panic if you can’t.

2. Prepare the New Hive Box
Set up your second hive nearby. Make sure it’s ready to receive frames.

3. Divide the Frames
There are 6 key components that must go into a new split: adult bees, larvae, eggs, pollen, honey, and uncapped queen cells. Move a balanced selection of frames into the new hive:

• 2–3 frames of eggs
• 2-3 frames with larvae (at different stages of growth)
• 1–2 frames of honey/pollen
• Additional empty or foundation frames

Shake or brush extra bees into the new box to ensure it has enough workers. Make sure that there is at least one healthy, uncapped queen cell being put into the new box as well. This is how the bees will make their new queen. Make sure you do not put the old queen into the new hive.

5. Position the Hives
Place the new hive several feet away from its mother colony. You can also even face the new colony in a different direction! Some foragers may get confused, but this way your bees will start to recognize their new home. 

6. Monitor and Support
Over the next few weeks, check for queen activity (eggs = success!). If you do not find eggs after a month or two and see signs of stress or imbalance, unfortunately, your split was unsuccessful. Happens to the best of us! If your split fails, you can either:

• Add in a new queen in a queen cage
• Recombine with the old hive or with another, weak hive

Splitting hives can be challenging and overwhelming at first. It's always disappointing when a split doesn't make it and the bees fail to create and accept a new queen. However, practice makes perfect and with close attention to detail, you can successfully split and grow your colony numbers!