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Yesterday I helped my friend split one of his hives. I took three full frames of bees including two frames of capped and upcapped brood and one frame of honey. We left his hive with roughly the same number of bees, but with more resources. We also made sure we left the queen with him. Originally I'd planned on letting my split make their own queen, but now I'm second guessing that decision. I'm wondering if it's too early for drones to be flying and I also don't want to be three weeks out on hive progression.
As of noon today, my split has been queenless for 24 hours. No doubt they're already in the process of rearing their own queen. Is it too late to add a queen today? If not, I plan on stopping today to buy a caged queen. I'll tuck the cage between frames tonight and add a frame feeder while I'm in there. Does this sound like it will work? This is my second year beekeeping and my first split.
As of noon today, my split has been queenless for 24 hours. No doubt they're already in the process of rearing their own queen. Is it too late to add a queen today? If not, I plan on stopping today to buy a caged queen. I'll tuck the cage between frames tonight and add a frame feeder while I'm in there. Does this sound like it will work? This is my second year beekeeping and my first split.