Pagden Split
Removing all brood from a colony
The pagden split is a little more complicated than most methods, however it is exceptional as a means of swarm control. It leaves one colony with almost all the brood, and leaves the queen where she is. Both colonies will have plenty of room, and you will still have a booming box of bees at the end of the process.
If you want to understand why this works, read the Swarm Control page.
Required Equipment
- A full hive
- Frames (foundation or drawn, either is fine)
- Floor
- Brood body
- Roof (and inner cover, if you use one)
- A spot for a new hive somewhere in the apiary
The method
- Remove four frames from the new hive body
- Find the queen, and place the frame the queen is on into the new hive body
- Add a frame of stores into the new hive body
- Backfill the remaining gap with fresh frames
- IMPORTANT: you MUST remove ALL queen cells from ALL frame in the new box
- The new (queenright) hive body should now have 1 frame of brood, 1 stores, and the rest empty
- Move the old (now queenless) hive body away from it’s original location
- It can be on the same hive stand, just pick a spot a that’s furthest away (but don’t fret if it’s not that far)
- Place the queenright hive body onto the stand where the old one was
- Place the queenless hive in the new location
- Reduce queen cells
Note: Please read the reducing cells page. The manipulation isn’t finished until you also follow that page.
Be aware that you either need to include frames of stores or feed them 1:1 syrup in the queenless hive. This side will ideally be heavily broodful and will have no flying bees (foragers) - their calorie needs will be high with no forage coming in. There’s a risk of starvation, you need to manage it.
TODO: Add pics