How to Do a Walk‑Away Split: Simple Step‑by‑Step Guide for Beginner Beekeepers

What is a walk away split? This type of split is actually the easiest to do when keeping bees, and I’m going to walk you through every step of it from start to finish here in this article.

First let’s start with why you’d choose this method.

Why do a walk away split?

First of all, a walk away split is easy! It is the easiest possible way to split bees, to create more colonies. It is not the most efficient, because of the colonies goes over a month without brood, or a laying queen, but this can be beneficial to cause brood breaks. From a honey harvesting standpoint, a walk away split is not the best idea, especially if there are multiple colonies you’d like to split.

Secondly, just about any beekeeper can do one, even if you can’t find the queen.

What is a walk away split?

A true walk away split is taking one hive with two brood boxes and simply taking one of the boxes away and putting it on a new bottom board and replacing the cover. No need to find the queen, or look for brood or evenly divide honey or resources.

Most beekeepers I know will do a bit more of a controlled walk away split. It’s good practice to make sure both boxes have about equal resources and brood, but it’s unnecessary to find the queen.

Another variation would give all the brood to the colony without the queen, but at this point this kind of split is straying very far away from a true walk away split.

Step by step to do a walk away split

Whatever method you choose, it is important to ensure both colonies have brood if you do not know where the queen is. This brood must be young, still comma shaped. This young brood is what gives the bees the ability to make a new queen.

Start by laying out an additional bottom board and cover.

Decide what method of walk away split you are going to do. If you have decided on anything but the true walk away split, divide your resources accordingly.

Remove the top box to the new bottom board and place the cover on the box remaining on the original hive location.

That’s it, you’ve just done a walk away split. It’s so easy!

What to do after a walk away split?

In about five days, you can check for eggs in either of the colonies. Inspect gently so as to not injure any queen cells the bees have made! They are fragile. Whichever has eggs is the one that has the queen. Resume management as normal for this colony.

Check the queenless colony to ensure they are raising a new queen. You’ll see peanut shaped cells on the comb surface. It’s a very good sign to see several of these. Make sure the colony has enough food. Good food is important for raising a good queen.

Check the colony about 18 days from when you did the split. You should find queens about to hatch or the cell caps chewed open, and some of the cells torn into from the sides. This is from the first queen to hatch destroying her sisters.

The queen should mate in the next week, and begin laying very shortly thereafter. Thirty days from when you make the split, you can go ahead and look for eggs.

Troubleshooting

If you don’t see any queen cells five days after you made the split, add a frame of brood. This gives the bees another chance to raise a queen.

There is a small possibility they won’t raise a queen. At that point, recombine them using the newspaper method.

If you end up with a laying worker, then follow my tips on how to get queenright again.

Is a walk away split right for you?

If you have a strong hive and don’t want to go through it, to divide resources but want to split your colony, a walk away split is for you. If you have many colonies you’re trying to split, a walk away split is far from efficient. Consider using one of my other two methods. You can read about them here and here.

Overall, a walk away split is a very quick and easy way to divide your hives, and it’s a great beekeeping skill to have.