I have a hive that both deeps are side to side & top to bottom with brood & of course making swarm cells. my plan was to catch the queen & set her aside, put all the frames with swarm cells in one deep, put the queen in the other deep give them both a deep of empty frames, & move the swarm cell hive to my out-yard. that was the plan............I finally found the queen on the last frame of the bottom box & when I caught her the clip hinge pin slid out & she flew off. I closed the hive back up & the next morning could not find the queen. she was only a foot from the hive & she probably is back in the hive. I pulled all the frames with swarm cells & gave one each to queenless hives & made a nuc with another.
QUESTION-with no swarm or queen cells can I still split up the deeps with equal frames of brood in both & let the queen end up in in whichever box? if need be I will have some queens available in a few days.