How to make queens?

I have 7 hives I want to split come spring. I have made up queen cups and frame as shown by FatBeeman in one of his videos. My question is if I put this frame in my best hive will the queen lay eggs in the cells and then the hive produce queen cells to use in my splits or am I missing a step or two? Also. how would be the best way to keep queens alive that hatch before I am ready to use them?.

No, the queen will not lay in the cell cups.You will need to graft day old larva into the cell cups. Here is a good place to start, there is a lot of good info on this site.
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

Here is a specific Michael Bush page on rearing queens:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm

Bmat -

I plan on doing the same this spring. In addition to the Bush site, I saved off some links for reference.

http://doorgarden.com/11/simple-hone...-for-beginners

And a decent Youtube video on the subject

http://youtu.be/RKUH8dFlSaE

Mel Disselkoen's OTS (On The Spot) queen rearing, an alternative to grafting ...

http://www.mdasplitter.com/

http://youtu.be/qIYz65Vquxg


And, a queen rearing calendar generator

http://www.thebeeyard.org/queen-rearing-calendar/

I had a goal to start rearing some queens last summer and just never got to it.

Good luck.

This is a great thread on a simple queen rearing method...

http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...arter-Finisher