Hi All, I have a question about splits and am looking for some input.

I went into my 2 hives today, one had 4 frames of brood but the other had 8 in 2 mediums, at least 4 solid with brood,, lots of honey and pollen. Bees packed in over all 30 frames in the 3 mediums.

My question is, on the really gangbusters hive, would you do a split at this time or wait for a second batch of brood to be laid? I really want to increase my hives and don't care if I don't get any honey this year. The temps are still in the high 20's- 30's at night but this week are going up to 60 every day. Last frost date is mid April

In your zone it might be the right time to do a split.
I'm not a experienced beekeeper though so hopefully @dave or someone will come and comment.

I've never split a hive so I hesitate to offer advice. I've read a lot about it but feel like I need personal experience before I can advise.

(But based on what you're saying I feel like you could be successful.)

Well, thank you anyway, I am going to wait a few weeks and then give the Taranov split method a try. Fingers crossed!

Let us know how it goes!!

Just an update. I was able to do 2 successful walkaway splits on each of my 2 remaining hives. I purchased a nuc from another beek so i am up to 5 hives. I'll check all the hives this weekend again for swarm cells and if i find any may do another split

When doing splits in the spring, I always make certain that Drones are present. As soon as they appear, I am confident that once a new Queen hatches and makes her mating flight, that all will go well. I figure that if Drones are not yet active in my hives, they will probably not be around in other hives either.
So, regardless of what zone you live in, the appearance of Drones in Spring should be a good signal to do your walkaway splints. Here in my part of Texas, usually I do my splits in April or May, depending on how lazy I am.

That makes good sense to me Tim.