I inspected the main hive and found some queen cups and one supersedure cell so I pulled about 6 frames of brood and started another split. That was last Friday, July 1, if I recall correctly.
I added a super to the main hive; although I will need to check again to see if there are any more queen cells or if I have stripped out enough brood to suppress swarming. I want to see if I can harvest a whole box of honey. This super is the 4th box so the other 3 should still be enough to sustain the hive for the winter.
I am feeding both splits with the honey I extracted from the dead-out. I am using a feeder jar inside a hive box with a shim. The feeder takes about 3 frames of space so I put 7 frames in as well to allow for expansion. So far each split has been given 2 jars of honey.
I bought a marking pen so I can mark my queens when I find them. Meghan Gaven suggested practicing on drones first. That will be my next project. I will find the queen in the first split and mark her--after marking a couple of drones. That will also give me time to inspect the first split and make sure her pattern is good.
If the main hive is still making queen cells I will probably be making a third split. Hopefully the new queens are as good as their mother. She lays a beautiful pattern and an amazing amount. There was brood in all 3 boxes before I put on the super.
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