{"id":1330,"date":"2013-01-19T16:17:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-19T22:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sweetmountainfarm.com\/?page_id=1330"},"modified":"2017-09-06T22:04:15","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T03:04:15","slug":"colony-splits","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sweetmountainfarm.com\/index.php\/russian-bees\/colony-splits","title":{"rendered":"Colony Splits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4068\" src=\"https:\/\/sweetmountainfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SMF-Logo_blk_OC15-300x140.gif\" alt=\"Colony Split\" width=\"270\" height=\"126\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Colony Splits<br \/>\nRe-queening Colonies with Russian Queens<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, you can re-queen an Italian colony or Carniolan colony with a Russian queen but the process requires attention and skill.<\/p>\n<p>Introducing a Russian queen is more difficult than other honeybee races. The success rate is poor without a clear understanding about the behavioral differences of Russians. Introducing a queen between two frames and then removing the plug to direct release her after 3 days, as with other bee breeds, will not be successful. Direct releasing her, more often than not, will fail.\u00a0 Russian queens emit a strong pheromone. Most colonies need to slowly get use to the new smell. The following instructions are involved but by following them you will increase your chances for success.\u00a0 <strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>MAKE A COLONY SPLIT<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Remove 5 frames with workers, nurse bees, brood and honey\/pollen (<strong>4 days old or older<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<li>Do not include any cells containing eggs or 3 day old larvae.<\/li>\n<li>Place the 5 frames in a nuc box.<\/li>\n<li>Take the nuc box 2 miles away and open the entrance.<\/li>\n<li>Return the nuc box to its original location after 24 hours (don\u2019t exceed 72 hours).<\/li>\n<li>Transport bees back home when it\u2019s dark outside. Remember foragers are in the field during the day.<\/li>\n<li>Discard any Russian attendants that come with the queen shipment.<\/li>\n<li>Do not remove the candy plug or direct release the queen. Let the Italian bees release her.<\/li>\n<li>Place the caged Russian queen into the nuc<\/li>\n<li>Wait up to 10 days to make sure your Russian queen is laying.<\/li>\n<li>Assess, do not proceed unless you have successfully introduced your queen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>REUNITE SPLIT WITH COLONY<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make the Italian colony queenless.<\/li>\n<li>Wait 3 days letting the queenless Italian colony sit. You are increasing the odds that the old colony will not produce its own Italian queen.<\/li>\n<li>Check all frames for queen cells that may be started during the 3 day waiting period. Destroy them.<\/li>\n<li>Place the frames from the nuc box into an empty super.<\/li>\n<li>Place the super above the Italian colony and separate them with a double screen.<\/li>\n<li>During the next inspection remove the double screen and again check for and remove any queen cells.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In 21 days<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>YOU WILL HAVE A RUSSIAN COLONY!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are other methods of requeening.\u00a0David R. Tarpy, Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University and Jeffrey Lee, Commercial Beekeeper, Lee\u2019s Bees, Mebane, NC has a\u00a0<a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/content.ces.ncsu.edu\/comparison-of-russian-and-italian-honey-bees');\" title=\"A comparison of Russian and Italian Honey Bees\"  href=\"https:\/\/content.ces.ncsu.edu\/comparison-of-russian-and-italian-honey-bees\" target=\"_blank\">detailed paper\u00a0<\/a>written on the differences between Russian and Italian honey bees. <a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/content.ces.ncsu.edu\/comparison-of-russian-and-italian-honey-bees');\"  href=\"https:\/\/content.ces.ncsu.edu\/comparison-of-russian-and-italian-honey-bees\" target=\"_blank\">Steps to re-queen are on page 3. <\/a>The paper outlines the steps to re-queening an Italian colony with a Russian queen.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colony Splits Re-queening Colonies with Russian Queens Yes, you can re-queen an Italian colony or Carniolan colony with a Russian queen but the process requires attention and skill. Introducing a Russian queen is more difficult than other honeybee races. The success rate is poor without a clear understanding about the behavioral differences of Russians. Introducing <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4257,"parent":54,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1330","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Colony Splits - Sweet Mountain Farm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You can re-queen an Italian colony or Carniolan colony with a Russian queen as long as you know the process. Begin with colony splits. 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