Splitting a hive & saving the 'orphans'

[Spear]

Moved the bees from their old hive into a new hive & split then while I was at it. I put a divider board in a 12 frame hive and and put a few frames of brood & feed into each side (all the while checking for the queen - didn't find her so hoping that she is not in there) Then I put the rest of the frames from the old hive into a 12 frame hive (Didn't find the queen but hoping that she is in there). Moved both hives 'around the corner' from their original stand. I opened up the hive that I hope has the queen in right away after moving them (put a large leafy branch in front). The other 'double hive I kept closed for about 3 hours before opening up and introducing the queens. In this time the girls had started building burr comb onto the inner cover! This to me was amazing! I really didn't think the build so fast!
Now there where a lot of 'orphan' bees hanging around the old stand, some were begging their way into the other hives around them but many were clustering together near the fence. I pushed the 'neighboring' hive into the empty slot hoping the orphan bees will go in there and boost that hive (I replaced a drone laying queen in that hive today as well). I even scooped up some of the 'orphans' and dumped them in the 'neighboring' hive but many just flew back to the clustering point. So my mom comes up with a great idea - we had an extra queen (thought I had a queenless hive that now seems to be doing fine), 'put her in a nuc and put the nuc near the orphans so they will hopefully smell her and move into the nuc.' says my mom. Ok so I do this and to help things along I scoop some of the orphans into the nuc, put a feeder on and leave them over night. Maybe this will work and I will of made 4 new hives from the 1 old hive. Only time will tell...

[Steel Tiger]

 Sounds like it'll work. Some people will put an empty box where the old hive was so that the bees will have a place to go and get out of the cool night air. You did that by giving them a nuc. Good luck with them.

[rookie2531]

Sounds awesome. I hope your queen is where you want her. I made a split a little over a week ago and couldn't find her and behold she was in the new box (didn't want her there) but better there than dead. Good luck to you and your orphans.

[rookie2531]

One more thing Spear, after my split, I did notice a lot more activity at the entrance in the queenless hive, and that actually made me think she was in there. The queenright hive seemed almost like nobody was home.