Splitting cell builders after last graft

[samsungpizza]

I want to split my cell builders into 4 frame nucs, in the near future. They are 8 frame mediums (7 + queen cells) over 8 frames of honey, plus four frames of nurse bees. Do I NEED a frame of sealed brood for the splits, or will the abundance of nurse bees with a queen cell be adequate? Hate learning the hard way. I started the cell builders 8-9 days prior to grafting with open and sealed larvae in upper box, restricting queen to lower box. Separated boxes early on grafting day, and shipped queened box to another yard. Tks.

[Michael Bush]

> Do I NEED a frame of sealed brood for the splits, or will the abundance of nurse bees with a queen cell be adequate?

People set up those mini mating nucs with just a cupful of bees and sometimes no drawn comb to speak of.  But they often fail too... brood is helpful to anchor the bees there.  If you don't have it, I would shake in extra bees to make up what will drift back.  Of course if one of those is at the old location where you had the cell builder, they will have plenty of bees...

[samsungpizza]

I thought so, but good to have encouragement. I'll put the weakest nuc at original location. I've been reading a lot about mini nucs, but can't convince myself to start using them. I had 75% loss last winter, so I am splitting everything into nucs when queen cells ripe, in preparation for next season. Tks for reply.

[deknow]

I think a well stocked, well maintained cell builder should have plenty of young bees.  I would be inclined to give them open brood, not sealed brood.

dknow

[samsungpizza]

The only open brood in the cell builder now is the frame I put in two days after grafting to lure mites away from queen cells. Any open brood I started the cell builder on has since been sealed, and the sealed brood will be hatching if it hasn't already. Thanks for reply.

[Michael Bush]

>I would be inclined to give them open brood, not sealed brood.

Me too, but a cell builder that now has cells old enough to put in mating nucs has none.  So I have to steal it from other hives if I'm going to do that.  And sometimes I do...