Hive Splits

[ghulst]

I am new to beekeeping although I had bees 40 years ago. A friend in church had a hive that got my blood flowing. I made eguipment and caught a swarm last year that made it though the winter very good. However my friends hive died out due to him not putting in a top ventilation for air flow. So this week monday May12 we divided my hive into 4 parts plus using his comb. We are only interested in making more hives not honey porduction. Each split got 4 frames which were brood and eggs plus there were some queen cells. They all got a couple of frames of honey. All the field bees went back to the original hive whick is very active. We moved the 3 new splits about 100 feet away. As of today May 16 I have seen pollen being brought in to all 4 hives. When should I check them and see how they are doing? Is bringing in pollen a good sign they they may make or have a new Queen? We never saw the queen however I believe that it is in the original hive. There are also alot of Dromes flying.
I just can't wait to see how they are doing.Any info would be helpful.
Thanks
Gary

[beemanlee]

ghulst,
The time for the cells to develope a new Queen is 16 days from a fresh egg. The time it takes the Queen to start egg laying is about 3 weeks. Thats about 5 weeks total, there about.
The only way for you to know the ansure to your question is to look inside of nucs.
The top of the combs starting to whiten is one good sign with the top off. Look down and see if you see brood extentions, this is a bad sign, that means she has not matted or matted with her brothers or a laying worker. You need many drones to mate with your new Queens and they should not be from the same hive as the Queens. I hope you have some other hives in you area with drones!
Look and see what is on the frames in the center of the nuc. A nice laying pattern is what you are looking for, not one that has lots of missed cells.
Lee...

[Ross]

Even capped, paper stage queen cells couldn't produce a laying queen in 4 days. From queen hatch, it takes several days before she will fly and a few more to mate. Then it takes a week or more to start laying. It could be 3 weeks plus as stated above from queen hatch to laying. About the 1st of June you might have eggs if the queen cells were capped when you started. If they started new queen cells from eggs, it will be closer to 15 June.

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm