How much activity is normal around a split?

[Marion]

On Thursday we made our first split. They do not have a queen because I want them to make one from the brood. I have not seen a lot of activity around the split. I hear them in there. I see a couple of bees crawling around the outside of the hive. They do not seem to be using the front entrance, rather using the small exit of the inner cover. Only 1-3 bees seen at any one time. Is this because they are saving energy and with fewer bees are trying to reorganize? I will look in on Monday (day 4) and see if there are any queen cells happening.

[Slowmodem]

Is it possible that they're mostly nurse bees and not used to flying in and out yet?

[pistolpete]

When you say split, how big of a split?  How many frames of bees did you put in there?  To me a sustainable size is 4 frames (2 brood, one honey, one pollen) and the bees from at least one more frame shaken in.  What happens is that all the foragers go back to the original hive, so all you're left with is nurse bees in the split.  They'll start flying in a couple of days.

[Jen]

This is good to know Marion, thanks for asking    I did a split around the same time as you did, the frames that were left in the original hive the bees are coming and going as usual. But the other half is no action at all. I took a peek and there are still bees in there.

Thanks Slow and Pete, I'll keep my eye out 

[Marion]

i put the right amount of frames in there, but forgot to shake in extra bees. I'm going to look in there tomorrow which will be 4 days since the split and see if a queen cell is being made and I may shake in a frame of bees then.