Im California and when I split my hives last spring I put a queen cell in with 2 frames of bees, fed them sub and 1:1 syrup and what not. They were not very fast in building up as you could imagine. In talking to people the least amount they usually make splits with is 3 frames of bees. I made splits yesterday with Q cells and 4 frames of bees. These should be good to go for the winter.
As for introducing new queens, I would kill the old queen about 2 days before your new queens arrive. I would then place the caged queen in between two frames of brood where the nurse bees are more likely to care for her and accept her before she is released. And leave the cork in the cage hole for probably 3 days before removing it for the bees to release her. This will get approximately 6 days of getting acquainted with their new queen.
One thing I would do is call ad cancel half the queens, maybe order 5. If you ordered 11 you might end up spending more money for less production, put the extra money you save into pollen sub and sugar syrup to build those splits up!!
As for introducing new queens, I would kill the old queen about 2 days before your new queens arrive. I would then place the caged queen in between two frames of brood where the nurse bees are more likely to care for her and accept her before she is released. And leave the cork in the cage hole for probably 3 days before removing it for the bees to release her. This will get approximately 6 days of getting acquainted with their new queen.
One thing I would do is call ad cancel half the queens, maybe order 5. If you ordered 11 you might end up spending more money for less production, put the extra money you save into pollen sub and sugar syrup to build those splits up!!