Enough For a Split?

[Michibee]

I started two hives this year. One is strong ( 1 1/2 deeps of brood chamber) the other one lost the queen and was queenless. So I ordered a Queen to put in the queenless hive. That evening a local beekeep called and offered a small (half pound?) swarm and queen he had just caught. I installed the the swarm in the queenless hive the next day. Five days later my Queen arrives but was dead since it probably sat at the post office over the weekend. When the replacement arrived, I figured it was an opportunity to try a split off the strong hive. I took three frames of bees and brood from the strong hive and put them in a deep along with the queen in the cage.
I'll check it in two days to see if the Queen has been released. My Questions are; 1)Is three frames the right number for the split. 2) I didn't have a NUC box, so I used the deep. Will this cause problems? 3) Should I have done something differently?

[livetrappingbymatt]

did you give them a frame of honey/pollen? you may want to put in a follower board to reduce the size to 5 frame.
feed it and watch it.
it may start slow but should make it.
i start singles the first week of july w/3 brood 1 honey/pollen and one undrawn in a 5 frame nuc.these are full singles by winter and make it thru the winter better than my larger hives.
bob

[Michibee]

The frames I used had some honey and pollen above the brood. I also put on an external syrup feeder. Does the follower board just divide the deep? Going all the way to the BB and inner cover?

[livetrappingbymatt]

yes. it splits the hive in two.
i feed syrup and pollen sub to my splits.
we have good july thru sept flows but we can have derths so for insurance i feed.
bob