Nuc location swap for drift

[malabarchillin]

3 weeks ago I split my only hive 50/50.
Half became a 5 frame nuc with old queen. 4 days ago bought a  strong 5 frame nuc. Original nuc is lite on bees. Do not really want to shake bees from new nuc into old nuc. I will inspect in a couple of days. If new nuc appears really strong I am thinking about swaping nuc locations (6 feet) to give weaker nuc more foragers from strong nuc. The nucs are unrelated. I assume that foragers from each nuc will be accepted because they are bringing in nectar or pollen. Does this sound like a reasonable thing to do ?
The spring flow is due here any day now. There are foragers in original nuc, but not many nurse bees to feed brood. If there are decent foragers and a flow will they eventually catch up with the laying queen ?
Thanks
Mike

[Michael Bush]

Lots of people do that.  It usually seems to work out.  But I've done it and found the queen being balled by the returning workers from the other hive.  I can't say they killed her, but it worried me a lot.

[Moonshae]

So, you have 3 5-frame nucs, one with the old queen, the new nuc with its own queen, and the third...raising its own? If you have a flow coming on, why not buy a queen for that third nuc, put them all into full 10-frame boxes, and be ready to add another when they need it? 3 Nucs will not be very useful to handle the flow.

[malabarchillin]

Yes.... close.
1. nuc has old queen and not a lot of bees. ( 1/2 of split)
  It is too weak for 10 frame.

2. A 10 frame who was raising queen from split. She should have emerged by now.
    Hopefully enough bees to make it until new queen starts laying and new brood hatches.
    They appear to be ok. (other half of split)

3. 5 frame nuc bought a few days ago.  Appear strong. I will put them in a 10 frame in a week or so.
    Do not really want to risk this nuc to help 1 above.

I see posts where people create small (2 or 3 frame) nucs.
How do they do it with small amounts of bees ? Yes I know that they shake more in originally.
I will inspect again in a couple of days to try to judge how many bees there are.

Again. The old queen (6 months old) appears to be laying well, but brood does not look 'wet' enough with larval food. If there are not enough bees will the queen slow down laying until the number of foragers and nurse bees reach a equilibrium to raise brood ?

[Brian D. Bray]

Again. The old queen (6 months old) appears to be laying well, but brood does not look 'wet' enough with larval food. If there are not enough bees will the queen slow down laying until the number of foragers and nurse bees reach a equilibrium to raise brood ?

The queen will only lay as much brood as there are bees to cover them.  The honey doesn't require bees on it but the brood requires it--they queen will slow down her laying eggs for a period until enough bees hatch so she can enlarge the brood area.

[Michael Bush]

>How do they do it with small amounts of bees ? Yes I know that they shake more in originally.

Exactly.  You have to have twice the number of bees you really want to make up for the drift.  You have to shake them from brood combs to get young bees that haven't oriented yet.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm