# Need advice on a potential split for this morning



## brewbush (Dec 11, 2015)

After checking on the hives today I found 2 that I have questions about.

First we have a hive that is doing well overall and has taken off since nuc days. However today we found a couple queen cells with jelly and 99% sure a larva in them. 

This one I think I will need to split. I already had one hive that superseded and is plodding along.

For this split I want to divide up the resources into 2 deeps. One will have the queen cells and the other will have the frame with the original queen. An artificial swarm.

I am pretty sure this is a swarm cell and not supersedure however never can be sure. They have started backfilling the brood nest with nectar and there are no open eggs/larvae. 

1. In this situation is there a way to split WITHOUT finding the queen? Or do we have to search until we find her?

2. Any other suggestions for this one?



For my second strong hive. Again going through we found capped queen cells. When we initially found them we did not notice any larvae. Plus there was plenty of room not really sure why the impulse to swarm. There was also a decent amount of bees, so if they already left (which in theory they did once the cells were capped) there will still be enough bees left...provided no afterswarms.

So while playing with the capped queen cells one was almost opening, I helped a little bit and viola! New queen, in pic below. I left the other cells and will let her take care of them as needed.

3. Anything additional to do with this hive? Seems the boat already sailed and best to just sit back and relax?



I started opening up the broodnests in my other hives because it seems I am missing some early swarm cues and may have not been as proactive as needed.


Thanks all


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## johnbeejohn (Jun 30, 2013)

First hive pull queen out move away with a few frames of bees to a new box destroy all but 2 cells the biggest ones if there is jelly in there there is larva being fed
2ND hive split them up with 2 queen fells 3ach split


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## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

For hive one, a couple of cells does not say swarming to me. Swarming as a rule involves many queen cells. But as you say you never know. Regardless I would also see this as an opportunity to produce an additional queen that could then be managed as a nuc to support the original hive. In a short period of time you will have what amounts to two queens producing brood for one hive. I would say yes you definitely want to locate the queen during such a split to insure she does not end up with the cell.

Sounds to me like hive two took care of the situation themselves.

It has appeared to me that bees will supercede their queen any time there is not satisfactory brood in the hive. I am particularity aware of this in situations following cut outs where the majority of a colonies brood may have been killed or damaged for example. I suspect it is part of the reason swarms and packages will often supercede their queens.


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## Billboard (Dec 28, 2014)

When you split you dont want the queen with the qc's so id find her.


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## NewbeeInNH (Jul 10, 2012)

I love timing it just right when you see the new queen emerging! Probably couldn't plan that if you tried.

About leaving the rest of the queen cells in that hive, be careful. They've been known to hatch out and take afterswarms with them, one by one. That happened to me last year. It'd probably be best if you removed all the queen cells (or left one) after you saw the queen hatch out.


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## NewbeeInNH (Jul 10, 2012)

Dup


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

Springtime/summertime splits for me - I check that a box has brood & eggs - then just move the whole box - if the queens in there - o well - if there's 3 or 4 boxes of brood - same thing
quick splits and no queen hunting - I don't care where she ends up - Now - check back 5 days later - easy to find old queen - she's the one with no queen cells and fresh eggs - there the ones still standing up in the brood comb cells - eggs lay over after a couple of days - but the fresh eggs are still standing up on there ends


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