In order to ensure that the process of either division or unification is effective, the operations need to be done at their appropriate time, with the right skill. To make colony division, the colony must be stronger, the hive should be in the same dimension as the sister size, and colony division or unification should be during the swarming period.
Colony division
Ensure that after the colony division, the old and the new hives are close together. This allows the pheromone produced by the queen n the old colony to keep the bees in the new hive together also as the queen in the new hive develops.
Ensure that you feed the bees with sugar syrup to keep the productivity of the colonies high.
Do the colony division when the conditions are warm to minimize stress.
Colony unification
Ensure you do the unification when coming to the swarming time.
Ensure that you have the 2 bee hives that are to be united close to each other.
Colony unification is done to unite 2 weak colonies to make one strong colony.
Ensure that the bees are of the same species with similar characteristics and genes.
Ensure that both bee hives are baited to remove the bad smell.
Do it when there are a minimum of three combs per hive.
