Today, during a very hot spring day, we decided to divide the strongest family in the apiary; it is a family with more than 20 inhabited honeycombs (out of 25, foreseen by the Hive Top Bar hive).
From this we have obtained a small "orphanized" family, i.e. without the queen (left in the one of origin); However, in this new "derived" nucleus we have placed, in addition to spare combs, combs of young brood, hoping that the good worker bees will generate a new queen. “Division” is used for these two fundamental reasons:
1. Avoid "swarming", which is almost certain in this period of the year, in the imminence of a strong nectariferous and polliniferous period; this would cause the family to develop beyond measure, pushing a good part of it (together with the queen) out of the hive in search of another house, risking losing them;
2. Develop the apiary, with a new family.
How do bees produce a queen? We'll tell you about it next time!
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