June swarm is now boiling over two deeps — super it or split it in mid-July?
Caught a lovely prime swarm on June 6th here in Kent — big one, filled a skep. Hived it on a mix of drawn comb and foundation and it has gone like a rocket: two deep boxes now wall to wall with bees, 16 frames of brood and stores, comb building like it's April.
Now I'm dithering. Option A: throw a super on, let them make me some honey off the blackberry and whatever the lime has left, treat them as a production colony. Option B: take a 5-frame split off them now as insurance and let both build for winter.
My hesitation on splitting: it's mid-July, and a split would need to raise a queen and get her mated with the season winding down. Is there still time for that this far into summer, or is that asking for a failed queen and a dink going into autumn?
#swarm#split#supering#summer-management
▲ 14 votes💬 4 replies✅ Solved
4 replies
DrentseBij · Jul 15, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
Mid-July at our latitude is the cutoff where I stop letting splits raise their own queens. Count it out: ~16 days to a mated laying queen if everything goes perfectly, more like 3-4 weeks in practice, then she still has to lay the winter bees in August/September. One rainy fortnight and you've got a drone layer in October.
So: super it. If you really want the insurance split, do it with a bought mated queen — introduce her to a 5-frame nuc and you've skipped all the risk. But honestly, a swarm that builds like that is telling you it wants to make honey. Let it.
DevonBees_Em · Jul 15, 2026
I did exactly option B with a self-raised queen on July 20th last year in Devon and got away with it, but only just — she didn't lay until August 18th and the nuc went into winter small. It survived but I fed it constantly. Wouldn't roll those dice again when a mated queen is £40.
PerthshireBees · Jul 15, 2026
Agree with DrentseBij, and it's even tighter up here in Perthshire — my personal walk-away-split deadline is the last week of June. One more thing: a swarm that strong will backfill fast when the flow ends, so get that super on NOW, not next weekend.
KentishBee · Jul 16, 2026
Super went on this evening — you're right, they were already starting to nectar-up the outer brood frames. Ordered a mated queen for next week and I'll pull a small nuc when she arrives. Best of both. Thanks everyone.