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So I did my first split on March 30. Found the queen, moved her with an entire brood box, put excluder on top, and added honey super from the original hive. Just checked back today for the first time...

Found the queen and plenty of mixed brood below the excluder - everything looked great. In the honey super above the excluder, there are a couple of small patches of capped brood (assume there were unknown eggs there when I did the split).

In one of those patches is also one capped queen cell on the middle face of the frame. What does it mean, do I leave it, or do I get rid of it? Assuming it hatches, then I'd have two queens in the hive separated by an excluder??? What the heck would I do then?

Find the best bee book you can get and give it to your bees to read. I'm in the same situation with a hive at the Arboretum, but for a different reason. I put on queen excluders but deliberately put some brood above the excluder to encourage the bees to come through it. I now have a queen below and 3 capped queen cells above. I'm going to wait and see what happens. If I get a good queen above the excluder, I'll put her to work somewhere.

Fun! Queen pheromone slight up above. Sounds like a cloake board method of queen rearing.

I decided to experiment (and potentially help a friend get back into beekeeping). I pulled the frame with the capped supercedure queen cell and made a nuc split. I added two more frames of brood and nurse bees, shook out another frame of nurse bees, and put two frames of honey/nectar/pollen on the outside. I added a feeder and a bit of pollen patty until they can start foraging on their own.

That cell should hatch today or tomorrow, and hopefully she can get mated with the amazing weather this week. We'll see...

I must say I've been greedy. Thought I might do the same with a friend whose hives did not survive. But they are not asking ; so, I am going to Beez Needz for more hive bodies to house my growing apiary. I would like to find someone close to share queens or brood with if needed. And just to see another apiary. Our yellow book does not give addresses to know who is near me. Route 73 and 62 . south central county.