So, 5 days after the queen excluder was installed i.e. yesterday, Friday, I split the hive. Of course it was a perfect morning for it, so I was at work! The afternoon was showery and it was all a bit of a rush trying to get things done before we (me and the bees) got wet.
I have a slide-show that shows what we did yesterday. We did look very, very, hard for the queen and/or any signs she was in the top, or the bottom two hive boxes. Despite my efforts however, I did not see the queen at all. As far as I can tell there were no eggs in the top box, just some very small larvae. I hope these are from the eggs she may have laid last Sunday, now developing into larvae, but I'm not 100% sure. The bottom box did not yield much different, but I think I may have seen some eggs. So that's certainty for you! Perhaps if it had been a little brighter we may have been able to see more.
Anyway, armed with this little amount of information we proceeded to make the split. The top box (with no queen) became the new split or "Daughter" colony and the bottom 2 boxes became the "Parent" colony. Just for good measure we reversed the Parent as well. Both colonies have been fed, the daughter with Fumagelin to treat any possible nosema virus.
Finally, this morning Susan and I collected our queens. We had the choice - a queen from Texas or one from Louisiana. We had Louisiana queens last year which I think were good, so we went for the Cajun, not the Cow-Girl! They were introduced when we got home and it's now fingers-crossed to see if the bees accept her. We hope so. The idea of splitting the hive yesterday was to give the flying bees the chance to return to the "Parent" hive, leaving the nurse bees and some brood for the new queen. Nurse bees are apparently more accepting of a new queen.
The new queen will stay in her cage for a couple of days, just to make sure she is accepted, and I will then remove the cork stopper from the cage. The bees will eat away the candy plug and release her (over a couple of days), and with luck will not kill her!
There is just one little potential glitch in all this! If the old queen is still in the Daughter hive i.e. I did not correctly judge she was there when I made the split, we may have a problem. 2 queens in the Daughter colony, and none in the Parent - not really good. I will have a good look in the Parent hive tomorrow and try to find her, or see eggs. I think I made the correct split, but I'm not 100% sure! If she is in the Daughter I will remove the new queen (she is still in her cage) and reconfigure the split hives! Aggghhh! I hope it doesn't come to this!
STOP PRESS: I found her! After a long look, I saw the old queen hiding on a frame, way out in the lowest hive box! Much relief! Think I'll have a beer now.
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