Late NUC start

[chux]

I rolled the dice on August 30th. I went into four of my established hives and pulled three frames from each. One frame of honey. One with pollen, honey, and some brood. One frame of young brood and eggs. I put them in five frame nucs and shook a generous number of bees inside. I placed the Nucs in the same yard, but put branches in front of the entrance to encourage reorientation. These nucs also have a different entry type. (Holes instead of open platform)

I will go back out there at the end of the week and see who has queen cells. I did notch the brood frames in the OTS fashion. I also notched some cells in the donor colonies just in case I accidentally put the queen in the Nuc. I should still have plenty of drones around when these queens need to mate. Those Nucs that fail to create a laying queen, will get put back home. The others will get fed up and fattened up for winter. I will super these nucs with medium honey frames when the time is right.

I plan on making at least one more Nuc later this week. These nucs can be used to recover from losses this coming winter, or to sell in the spring.

[BeeMaster2]

Are you seeing drones. More importantly are your neighboring Beeks seeing drones. Your queens will not be mating with your drones.
I just split my OH hive on August 19. It was pact solid, prepping to swarm, there was a 6" ball of bees hanging off the entrance. There were queen cups that the bees were in non stop. I could never see in them due to the bees. The queen had just started laying drone eggs that week. We have a good flow of nectar now but even down here I am concerned about her finding drones of age. Up until now I have not seen drones on my hives.
I see a still capped queen cell, as of this morning, Day 15 from split, and capped drone cells. I am hoping my neighbors hives have older drones that will be ready for her.
If you are seeing drones more than likely they are in surrounding hives.
Jim