Originally Posted by
gavin
You can unite whenever it suits. The friend who got me into beekeeping had a routine of splitting when queen cells were seen (in May), running two colonies through the summer and taking both to the heather, then uniting when they were brought back.
The advantage of splitting off a nuc is that you have a second chance of raising a new queen, useful insurance in the kinds of summers we've had recently here. Just fill a 5-frame nuc box with one frame with one nice, unshaken queen cell left on (and its bees of course), some sealed brood, some open brood, some stores, and shake in some extra young bees (the ones that stay on after a light shake). Plug the entrance with grass for 2-3 days or take it away to a new site (you're trying to stop too many bees flying back to the old site). If you end up with two new queens you have the option (after assessing them for a month or so) of requeening the old one with the nuc, simultaneously boosting it for the late season (and maybe a heather or Himalayan balsam crop).
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