Last month I had a laying worker hive that I shook out and it moved in with it's next door neighbor and really crowded it so I decided to split it. I don't recall ever raising a queen this late in the year. Don't have a fall flow to speak of so my drones get skimpy and I figure the others around do too. I also have had a problem with hot queens over here on the coast after supersedure. Anyway I made up an 8 frame split, got some brood out of a hive that I like, shook in some extra nurse bees and started feeding. Checked Friday and had 4 cells, 1 runt and 3 decent. I went back Saturday morning with making a small split in mind knowing full well it was day 16. One of them got up before I did and that was the end of anymore splits. It was a steady light rain all day today so I went down after church, smoked a few in, sealed them up and hauled them to my place in Mascotte and let them fly. I am right in between two of a queen breeders outyards and he dosen't mind loaning me a few drones. Now we hope she makes it out and back. A lotta work for a box of bees, but we like it don't we.
