Methods of creating a new hive / Hive duplication
1. Purchase a colony in a box
If you’re new to native bees and looking to get a native stingless bee colony it’s best to purchase it in a box already. Stingless bees will always come in a box or natural log and can’t be purchased by themselves without a box.
2. Splitting:
Splitting is a quick and effective way to duplicate a colony by simply dividing the colony in half and is usually done between September and March or the warmer months of the year and only if the colony is strong. Some people will split at any time of the year if the weather and temperature is good.
Beekeepers will use different terms but it’s all the same thing:
- Splitting
- Hard split
- Duplication
- Divisions
The box should be full of structure, stores and brood. If the colony isn’t strong then you shouldn’t be splitting it and maybe wait for another year. Colder areas may mean slower colony growth. Some years if the weather has been bad the colony health may have suffered and should be left longer before splitting.
Splitting video – https://www.nativebeehives.com/split-a-native-bee-hive-video/
3. Transferring:
Moving the whole existing colony to an empty box. This is usually done if the old box or log structure is falling apart.
Most colonies should be just transferred as a whole colony and not split in to two at the same time. Transferring a weak colony is risky as there may not be enough bees or brood for it to recover from the move.
4. Water Meter Rescue / Transfer
If you find one in your watermeter box you may want to transfer it before the council remove or destroy it. Hopefully most councils have knowledge and experience with this situation and don’t destroy them.
This photo shows a very small weak colony. Small colonies like this are at great risk of failing if you transfer them. If possible it’s good to let them grow in size and strength before transferring to a box.
5. Budding – Eduction – Soft Split – Hive Duplication:
Connecting a new empty box to an existing hive colony and forcing them to enter and exit via the new box. Some people have great success with this method but there is a lot of unsuccessful attempts so experience helps. Propolis can be added to give the bees some extra resources to work with to build structures.
Terms that are all the same thing:
- Budding
- Eductions
- Soft Split
- Hive duplications
- Creating an assisted micro colony
Within the “Eduction” category there’s different methods:
- A simple connection of the empty box and wait for the bees to build a new colony.
- Adding brood to the empty box to encourage quicker growth. This involves opening the mother colony or another colony and removing some brood and adding the brood to the daughter colony.
Update 2024: This method has grown in popularity over recent years so more experiences are being shared more. There’s quite a few reports of the mother hive being blocked off or not re-queening and dieing out so be aware this method isn’t guaranteed and does come with it’s own risks and should be closely monitored.
6. Trap Hive:
Replacing a full hive colony that is under attack with an empty box in the hope that the attackers create a new colony in the empty box. If you notice bees swarming and dead bees in front of your hive then it may be under attack. You can move the old hive to a new location and place an empty hive in the old location. It would be more successful if you used a box with existing hive material, even a weak failing colony so it could be taken over and saved by the attackers. If you use a clean empty box the success rate is low.
Tip: If you can trap a large number of bees inside the box, add some brood from another box and then move the box to a new location a few kms away. This will hopefully discourage the bees from abandoning the new box.
Warning: Swarming bees could actually be from your own hive and if you move the original hive away and place an empty box in it’s place you might just be trapping your own bees and they might all die and you have just weakened your original colony.
7. Bait Hive:
Placing an empty box in an area that may attract native bees to investigate and create a new colony inside the new box. Use Propolis (Native Bee Wax and Resin mixture) around the hive entrance and inside the box to make it more attractive to the bees. Success rate of this method is very low, and even unlikely, but it doesn’t hurt to have a few empty boxes sitting around, it’d be like winning the lotto wouldn’t it?!
Visit the Hivecraft Shop – https://www.hivecraft.com.au
