Checking in again

The first split is doing well. I did not look in the bottom box, but there were eggs there last time I checked so I expect there are frames of brood there now. There are 2 frames of eggs/brood in the second box even though there are only 7 frames and the feeder jar in the second box. They emptied the feeder so I refilled the jar and will continue feeding them until they draw out more comb in the second box.

The second split still has some capped worker and drone brood from the original queen, but there is also evidence of at least one queen hatching and killing off the other queen cells. The workers are cleaning and preparing cells, but no eggs yet. From what I have read, it will probably be another week or so before there are eggs from the new queen. I put in one more frame of eggs, larvae and capped brood from the main hive so if something has happened to the new queen the workers can use the eggs to start up another queen. Probably not necessary, but I'm hedging my bets. There are still 7 frames in the second box with the jar feeder of honey. They finished off the last jar so I'm feeding them more. The honey from the dead-out is almost gone.

I opened up the main hive which is packed with bees. I did not dig around in the bottom box. It appeared to be full of bees and provisions. There was one frame with eggs, larvae and brood in the second box that I pulled and put into the second split. It had the beginnings of a swarm cell. That might be more useful to the second split. I think there were 6 frames of brood in the second box. There were 2 frames of brood in the third box, along with the queen. The queen was on a frame of honey against the side of the box. I'm guessing she was trying to avoid me and moved there to hide. I think she may be reducing her laying as we come into the dearth. The top box is still undrawn foundation. I tried rearranging things by putting a few frames with honey from the third box into the top box and swapping them for foundation from the top box. I am hoping that making space in the third box and putting honey in the top box will encourage the bees to fill up the super and not swarm.

I'll give it a week and then check again. With luck the first split will be ready for another box, the second split will have eggs and larvae, and the main hive will be filling the super.