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🐝 How Beekeepers Split One Colony Into Two

A 3D side-by-side hive lab: divide one colony's bees, brood and queen between a parent hive and a new split, then scrub through the days as a new queen develops and watch forager drift depend on how far apart you place the hives.

Entomology & Insect Behaviour3DModerate60 FPS

Divide one colony's frames of bees and brood between a parent hive and a brand-new split, choose how you requeen the queenless half, and scrub through the days as she develops — while forager drift-back shows why hive placement matters as much as the split itself.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

The old queen almost always stays with the parent hive, leaving the new split queenless unless you supply a cell or a mated queen. Meanwhile, foragers navigate by memorised landmarks, so a split placed too close to the parent loses flying bees back to the old entrance every day.

🎮 How to Use

Set the split ratio and requeening method, then drag the day slider to watch the new colony's queen-rearing timeline unfold on its brood frame. Move the distance slider to see forager drift-back rise as the new hive gets closer to the parent.

💡 Did You Know?

Beekeepers often drive a fresh split at least 3km away for two to three weeks, or rotate the parent hive's entrance, specifically to stop field bees drifting back and abandoning the new queen before she ever starts laying.

⚙ Under the hood

beeshivesplittingcolonyqueenbeekeepingThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install