A few days ago, I made a
walk away split from #2. That is one without a queen but with a frame with eggs and young larvae as well as 2 frames with capped and emerging brood. The remaining two frames have honey and pollen. Four weeks after making the split, I will check for evidence of a laying queen, i.e., eggs or larvae. As you can see in the above picture, there is no activity at the entrance of the nuc, but it is only 4 days old. The nurse bees are still in the box.
This is looking into the nuc through a vent hole. The propolis was built mostly by previous occupants.
Speaking of propolis, I sold 8 ounces of my extract to a local health food store! Julie's attractive labels helped.
I did have some help making the split. A couple of weeks ago I got a call from Tony, a neighbor of Roberta's. He just started keeping bees this year and had some questions. I went to his home to look into his hive and met Damara, a friend of his and a first year beek. They came over to visit my apiary and help to assemble the nuc.
