[Cameron Daley]

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.

 

[jmgi]

No problem, put the queen cage in between a couple frames with the candy end upwards making sure the bees can communicate with the queen through the screen. I would not punch a hole through the candy, let the bees eat their way through the whole thing, by then she will be accepted just fine.

 

[Cameron Daley]

Thanks for the quick reply. One other question. I have a lot of frames from a dead out that are already drawn. Are there any cons to filling the single deep box (containing the aforementioned split) with the already drawn frames? If I'm adding a queen, then I'm sure she'd appreciate the ready-to-use frames, right?

 

[jmgi]

Yes use the drawn frames if you have them. Another thing I forgot to mention is to let the attendant bees out of the queen cage before you introduce her, because the bees in the split may not get along with those unfamiliar attendant bees. Do it in the house near a window if you are afraid of the queen escaping and flying away while you are releasing the attendants.

 

[camero7]

I would go through the hive and destroy any queen cells that have been started before introducing the queen.

 

[Kyle G]

... I'm wondering if it's too early for drones to be flying...

There is a high number of drones in my colonies right now. I have been seeing them fly for at least a couple weeks. I will be making a nuc today in Kaysville and letting them raise a queen.

 

[jmgi]

I would go through the hive and destroy any queen cells that have been started before introducing the queen.

If its only been a day I don't see the need to, but more than a day or so then I would look for cells.