Budding native hive from log hive

There are number of ways of duplicating hives from a boxed colony of native bees. However duplicating a hive from a log colony can be a little more tricky. Tricky, but definitely doable. Duplication of a log hive into a boxed hive is often referred to as budding a hive, hive eduction or soft splitting among other names. Ultimately, the goal is to channel the bees from the log colony through an empty hive box. Over time, the colony will seal the hive box and start to build structure, honey and pollen pots and with a little luck and patience, may eventually start to duplicate by building brood in the vacant box.

The following video provides some ideas for facilitating this type of 'soft split'. You'll note that during the video we use a straight hose pipe to connect the log hive to the hive box. Following filming this, we removed that hose and added a 't junction' pipe. Once brood was created in the hive box (took about 3-4 months) we opened the t-junction which allowed the bees from the mother hive to enter and exit from the new entrance.

A couple of things we've learned so far:

Attach only the bottom level of an OATH style hive to get your hive eduction going (like the above picture). If you use both levels of a hive box, you create too much of a cavernous space and the bees will have a lot of work to do to seal it up. This can also make them susceptible to pests because it takes them longer to create entrance tubes to secure their entrances.

Pop a viewing window on the top of the empty box so you can monitor progress. Just use OHT film or something similar. Be sure to tape this down so that no pests can lay eggs under them.

Once a ball of brood appears (around the size of a golf ball), open the t-junction fitting between the box and the log so bees from the mother hive can use this as an entrance/exit point. This is said to stop the queen from the mother hive from entering the hive box and taking out a newly emerged queen.

Remove your boxed hive or add another level when the bottom part of the box is nearly full.

Because you're working with a colony of living insects, hive duplication (in any way, shape or form) is not an exact science and sometimes requires various trials and errors to get it right. We've had some successful hive duplications and other attempts which ended with the budding hive being used as a honey super for the mother hive (not a complete failure but also not what we were hoping to achieve). The key is to ensure your mother hive is strong to begin with and keep a really good eye on it.

Enjoy watching our clip on hive duplication of a native log hive.