The second split has 3 frames of brood/eggs in the bottom box and 4 frames in the top box. I added another box on top and pulled 2 frames of honey out of the second box to put into the top box. It has 8 frames of foundation and lots of room. I put another jar of syrup on top to keep the hive drawing comb and expanding into the space available. I also put the IPM board under the screened bottom board to reduce the airflow as the temperatures start to cool.
The first split has 5 frames of brood/eggs in the bottom box and 4 frames in the middle box. The top box is about half full of honey/nectar, and they are drawing comb on the remaining foundation. The IPM board is already in place on this hive, and I think that's why it has more brood in the bottom box. I did not see the queens in either split, but the brood patterns are nice, and the second hive had a crowd out front last evening. I think the crowd was drones being excluded from the hive, and I saw fewer drones in the hive this time. I may pull some frames of stores from this hive to give to the second split to balance out these 2 colonies next time I do an inspection.
Now the bad news: the main hive was the source of the swarm. There are no eggs, larvae, or capped brood. There is some honey/nectar, but mostly empty space and lots of bees. The good news here is that I saw the queen in the top box, upper right corner. Not sure why she is there instead of lower down, but as far as I can tell she is not laying yet. According to what I have read, it will take a minimum of 8 days, but more likely 2-3 weeks for her to start laying so all I can do right now is keep my fingers crossed. At least she is in there, and the bees are not crazy aggressive like they were last time. I don't know if I will get a harvest if they don't fill in the boxes soon.
At least they are going into winter with 3 new queens.
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