It has been a while since I've done a split, and none of my resource books goes into much detail, so I thought I'd ask here.
I don't really need to split any of my hives, but I thought it would be good to leave one small hive where my bees are now (Sydneyville) after I've moved my four mature hives to their new home (P&K Bee Ranch). The plan is to move the mature hives the first week of July. Even though we will seal the hives with robber screens the night before we move them, I know that there are often foragers who don't make it home and camp out somewhere. I wanted to leave the nuc or small hive for a few days after the main move to give the overnight campers a place to go, rather than just flying around lost.
We'll give the nuc two frames of brood, two frames of nectar/pollen, and one frame feeder with 1 to 1 sugar syrup.
First Question: We've got one hive that is strong enough to make a nuc from, but 3Reds is wondering if we can put a frame of brood from 2 hives and shake in bees from both hives, or will we cause a war in the box?
Second Question: We plan on doing the split Saturday. We've ordered a queen that should arrive either Tuesday or Wednesday. Should we be worried about the bees in the nuc abandoning the brood and flying back home? I think I remember that the nurse bees should stay and we will likely lose all or most of the foragers.