THIS CLASS IS IN TWO PARTS:

• Sunday, March 28th, 6:30-9pm
• Sunday, April 4th, 6:30-9pm

There are many benefits to splitting your hive in the spring (March-May):

1. Swarm Prevention: Allows your bees to reproduce, but in a more controlled way than your bees swarming. Swarms often fly away and deplete your bees (not to mention anger your neighbors), whereas the splits you keep or give away.
2. Redundancy: Gives you extra hives and queens in case one hive has problems.
3. Mite Reduction: Some splits reduce mites greatly by causing broodless periods and can save you a mite treatment in May or June.

We will cover how bees make new queens, the timeline of queen mating, and how to make a basic split. This class will go into more details of making splits and nucs, including specific splits that work well, what can go wrong and how to fix it, and which months/timing works best. We will go into detail on a specific split that reduces varroa mites on both sides of the split. In order to make certain splits, you will need to be able to spot your queen, so we will go over tips for learning how to see your queen and how to find her.

As always this class focuses on what works in the East Bay environment (an urban area with close neighbors and a mild, Mediterranean climate).

Added this year is inserting a queen cell to your split. I also aim to include a live video session of making a split in March or April, weather dependent (recording will be sent as well).

This class is for beginners who haven't made a split yet - we'll cover simple splits to start out with.  This class is also aimed at beekeepers who have split before and who need tips, tricks, and advice.

Video and audio recordings will be sent after the class.

Instructor: Jennifer Radtke has been keeping bees in her backyard for 13 years, and has developed the beekeeping education program at the Oasis. She keeps up with her bees’ growth in early spring and in the East Bay split her hives every year around April 1st (& sometimes a second time at the end of May).