# Bees left the split



## jshannon (May 13, 2020)

I attempted to make a split by purchasing a queen and putting her in a 5 frame nuc box with two frames of bees, some honey and some brood. The queen has been in her cage in the nuc box for 4 days now. When I purchased her, the place I purchased her from told me to leave the piece of tape over the end of the fondant so the queen wouldn’t be released too soon. When I opened the nuc box today, all the bees were gone. I assume they all went back to the original hive. Can I just add more bees and brood to the nuc box? If I release the queen now, will the bees kill her. Suggestion?


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## SeaCucumber (Jun 5, 2014)

Add nurse bees and no empty comb. They are attracted to larvae, and don't want to travel much outside the hive. They should have a ramp because some don't fly. They like new queens more than field bees.


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## Amibusiness (Oct 3, 2016)

Locate queen in your other hive and put her aside for now so she does not accidentally get moved to new location. Put 1 frame open brood in the new hive. Set up a ramp to the entrance. Shake lots of bees from frames with open brood into the new hive / on the ramp. Foragers will fly back to old hive, nurse bees will crawl to brood smell. Leave new queen in her cage as close to brood as possible. 1 frame of honey, rest empty frames (no, or maybe 1, foundation). Check in 3 days and if all looks good release queen. With more experience you will be able to do this more efficiently with time and bee resources but for a beginner that is a pretty safe method....


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