I have one hive, double deep brood box and a medium super, all drawn out with no brood, capped or otherwise--due to about a 12 day queenless period. Probably 80% of the total cells in the whole hive are either capped honey or have nectar in them now, as with no queen they just went on lazily foraging and storing in the emptying brood chambers. I requeened four days ago, and since the attitude of the hive changed drastically and immediately for the better, I am assuming she was quickly accepted. While it seems there isn't too much brood space with all the nectar, I am counting on them to deal with it since I have been warned off opening right after introducing a queen.
But by a mistake, another queen arrived in the mail three days ago, and has probably been in the little plastic cage with her attendants for 5-6 days total now. What can I do with her? I would guess I probably will have a shortage of nurse bees soon, due to the 12 day egg gap, so that makes me think a split would not work. It seems to me I should try to just keep her under wraps as much as possible until the hive is fully recovered and then make a split later, like late july. Is there a good way to just keep a queen alive and on idle for that long? I assume she can't stay in that little cage. I considered puting her in with one frame of bees in a little observation chamber, with entrances small enough to restict her from leaving. Sound doable? Or maybe just in a package cage with a few hundred bees and a feeder can?
Would it be possible for you to get a frame of brood from another keeper in your area?
i would put her in the obsv. hive or take my chances with a split using the med. super providing i had the extra top bottom board and such. i think she'll do fine in the obsv. hive as long as you feed and you will have a learning experience. if you use the package cage the'll build comb in it and complicate things.
IMHO(if possible)I would add a few frames of brood to a super with drawn comb --if not possible I would add new frames and feed them 1:1 mixture until they have drawn it out. This is the reason I have two nucs.. I don't want to be queenless, need brood or drawn comb. Nucs are a great way to keep these things handy. Just two weeks ago, I had a weak hive that had little/no brood, few eggs but did have a new queen. So, I stole two frames of brood from one of the nucs and now it is a great hive with 10x the bees that were in there..