[theriverhawk]

Normally on splits, I have already purchased new queens. I decided for the first time to do something different with one hive. Call it my own little experiment.

I split a really strong 2 brood chamber hive last Wednesday night and moved both of them to a new location. One box has the original queen. The other is queenless. What I am wanting is for them to make a new queen.

Here are my questions...
1. How long before the queenless begins to make a queen cell?
2. Is there a semi-normal location that these cells would appear?

Appreciate all you guys...

 

[Fred Bee]

It is possible for the queenless side to start making queen cells within 24-48 hours of being queenless...of course providing that the queenless side of the split has fresh eggs from which to make a queen cell.

The location would be where the eggs appear in your frame. The bees will select one or more eggs (larvae) to begin feeding royal jelley to and make queen cells.

Good luck...

 

[theriverhawk]

Thanks Fred,
So, are these cells going to start off looking like a supercedure cell? Again, this is my first time doing a split this way. Was hoping that the original brood box would start a swarm cell or two by now...but not yet. So I'm letting the upper brood box make their own...hopefully.

 

[fish_stix]

They will build cells wherever on the frame they find a suitable young larva. They may build only one cell or they may build a dozen. Only the bees know how they'll do it!!