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Backstory: Hive #1 was booming. I made a split and transferred the queen to the new hive. I opened the original hive today to look for eggs (I transferred the queen to the split by chance) and found many multiples of queen cells all over frames in the top and bottom brood boxes. The hive had a super with 5 frames of nectar, and another super with the beginning of 2 frames of nectar. I noticed a lot of the empty cells in the brood boxes were getting filled with nectar. Hive #2 has a very spotty brood pattern, which also resembles drone brood. Its not a full bubble cap like I am used to seeing but looks slightly raised. All other available room is being filled with nectar. The hive was full of bees but I found 1 queen cell. I did not see any eggs. Bottom box is nearly all nectar and stores. I placed a frame of eggs from the split into hive #2 with hopes they might make another queen cell from it. I triple checked the frame from the split to make sure I did not transfer the queen into hive #2.
Do I leave hive #1 alone for 3 weeks and hope a new queen emerges and mates? What about the fact that the bees will continue to fill space in the brood chamber with nectar? Should I pull nectar frames out to make room and run the risk of damaging queen cells? I had issues last year with my hives swarming, then filling up with nectar, then the new queen had no space and swarmed again.
Do I wait another week and check hive #2 again for QC? Could the spotty brood pattern be to lack of space or a bad queen? If its a bad queen, do I find her, eliminate her, and then place eggs from the split again and hope for a new queen to be raised? Should I pull nectar frames from this hive as well?
Lastly, should I be feeding the split? Flow is strong right now and I live near a large apple orchard so the bees are bringing the nectar in big time.
I know that is a lot of info and a lot of questions but I really don't know what the best route is. Thanks to anyone with help.
EDIT: The split was created 8 days before I checked them yesterday
Do I leave hive #1 alone for 3 weeks and hope a new queen emerges and mates? What about the fact that the bees will continue to fill space in the brood chamber with nectar? Should I pull nectar frames out to make room and run the risk of damaging queen cells? I had issues last year with my hives swarming, then filling up with nectar, then the new queen had no space and swarmed again.
Do I wait another week and check hive #2 again for QC? Could the spotty brood pattern be to lack of space or a bad queen? If its a bad queen, do I find her, eliminate her, and then place eggs from the split again and hope for a new queen to be raised? Should I pull nectar frames from this hive as well?
Lastly, should I be feeding the split? Flow is strong right now and I live near a large apple orchard so the bees are bringing the nectar in big time.
I know that is a lot of info and a lot of questions but I really don't know what the best route is. Thanks to anyone with help.
EDIT: The split was created 8 days before I checked them yesterday