OK, I asked about splitting or not last week and Joe D and wolfer advised not too and I said I would take that advise, but better. B and Mike Bush made it sound possible and going back and forth whether to or not.....I did it. So here I am 7 days after the split, I could not find the queen during the split and was hoping that she was still in the original hive as I put a better looking brood frame in the new box. After 2 days I looked for queen cells and found 7 or 8 on 2 different frames, in the original box. Some were capped and some were not, I looked in other box just to make sure there wasn't cell in there as well, thinking I may have killed her during the split since I didn't see her and I looked real hard. After not finding her again, I was worried for sure but no queen cells in the new box. Day 5, I went in looking for her again and to check the cells and to add mediums and feed, etc.. So now it is day seven and I do remember somewhat the area where the cells are being pupae, they were small but not eggs unless there was one or two there I didn't see as I did not see any eggs that day because I can't see them yet as I need more experience. Anyway when they hatch out will there be more than one and go mate and return and swarm on me? Should I separate them in 2 frame nucs and try to raise as many as I can to boost population quickly, if so when will they hatch out if they were small pupae instead of eggs because I will need to build the boxes? I know this is a long question but I would love to get as many bees as possible before winter.
Oh, I forgot to post that I did find the queen in the new box on day five. She is alive and doing well so if the emerging queens don't make it back from mating, I still got her.
After the war party you'll most likely end up with one queen in the box. The new queen will hatch and kill the rest of the queen cells. My guess is that there's not enough resources to have a swarm. But bees will be bees.
I would split, you can always combine them back. Having that many q-cells on two different frames is a waste of resources if you want to go for bees.
I think I will law, if they don't hatch out before I get them out. I split them 8 days ago and they might have capped 4 day brood? And it is raining next couple days.