What you need

• A strong colony in 2 full sized brood boxes, with about 9 frames of brood.

• A spare full sized box with either empty or drawn frames (9 or 10 frames).

• A bottom board, roof, etc for the new hive.

• A Queen excluder.

When to do it

During spring and summer when the sources of nectar and pollen are abundant.

What to do

1. Find at least 4 frames of brood with mainly eggs not older than 3 days in your old colony.

2. Move these frames to a new box (shaking all the bees off the frames) and placing the frames in the middle of the box. Shake any bees back into the lower box.

Note: Be careful to ensure you don’t trap the original Queen in the new box.

The frames in the new colony should consist of:

• A minimum of 4 frames of eggs.

• 1 or 2 frames of pollen.

• 2 frames of honey.

• A spare empty frame.

You should concentrate on getting eggs that are less than 3 days old, these will make the best Queens. Have the honey and pollen on the outside of the eggs, the eggs should be in the centre of the frames.

1. This empty box now full of beeless frames becomes the queen rearing unit.

2. Add empty frames into the parent hive to replace the frames you have removed in a similar configuration as the new box.

3. The queen excluder is now put onto the parent hive, with the box of beeless frames on top of this. Leave this configuration for 24 hours.

You should concentrate on getting eggs that are less than 3 days old, these will make the best Queens. Have the honey and pollen on the outside of the eggs, the eggs should be in the centre of the frames.

1.This empty box now full of beeless frames becomes the queen rearing unit.

2.Add empty frames into the parent hive to replace the frames you have removed in a similar configuration as the new box.

3.The queen excluder is now put onto the parent hive, with the box of beeless frames on top of this. Leave this configuration for 24 hours.

Queen excluder on the top of old hive

After 24 hours

1. The top box will now be full of young nurse bees looking after the frames of brood with the original queen below the excluder.

2. Take the new box above the excluder and move it sideways. You should see plenty of nurse bees looking after the brood in the top box.

3. Place the new box in the location of the old hive, with a new bottom board and roof. This adds some flying bees to the new colony.

4. Move the old boxes to the side at least 3 or 4 feet away.

5. You may need to put an extra box onto the split and it’s a good idea to put a box onto parent hive to house the expanding hive.

5 weeks later

Check that new box has a new laying Queen. If you open the hive earlier than 5 weeks you endanger the whole operation.