# Split a hive and trying to cover my bases



## RyanD (May 7, 2015)

Hello again! Last week I posted for advice on my absconded hives, and this week I'm excited to say I recieved a split from my brother! 
I recieved 5 frames that contained capped and uncapped brood, pollen, Nector, lots of bees, and eggs that looked less than 24 hours old. I've done some research on splits and I have the fundamentals down on when to look for queen cells and time frame in which it takes for a queen to develope. The question I have is what to I do if I look in a few days and there are no queen cells? Everyone I've talked to says that there will be queen cells and not to worry to much, but after having two packages abscond I want to try and be prepared for anything. 
Any advice I can get from you guys would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!


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## Hilltop (Aug 21, 2013)

I don't know of any way to tell how old an egg is. A 1 minute old and 3 day old egg look pretty much the same to me. They should build queen cells if they have eggs and larvae. I've had splits take a couple days to get started before, but I haven't had one not do it all - unless they abscond. The primary reason that I think that's caused hives to abscond on me is lack of feeding. A brand new hive like the split you received is likely to have mostly younger bees (because the older ones probably all were flying when the frames were removed) and thus not much of a workforce for foraging. I would make sure they are well fed until they get firmly established and you see nectar and pollen coming in.


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## fieldsofnaturalhoney (Feb 29, 2012)

RyanD said:


> The question I have is what to I do if I look in a few days and there are no queen cells? Everyone I've talked to says that there will be queen cells and not to worry to much, but after having two packages abscond I want to try and be prepared for anything.


I would suspect then your brother accidently put a queen in with the split?


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## flyin-lowe (May 15, 2014)

I had a trap out that was queenless, I added a frame of eggs, larvae, from another hive on a Wednesday and went back to check and found queen cells on the following Sunday (4 days). Mine was unsuccessful because it was still early and there were no drones in the area. I was told once I confirmed the queen cells I should stay out of the hive for several weeks as to not disturb them.


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## RyanD (May 7, 2015)

Flyin-lowe, I was given similar advice. I was told to check for queen cells and when confirmed not go into the hive for three weeks.


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