Is it safe to split the hive now?

[john1]

Hi,
I have a queen less hive with 2 queen cells.

After one of the queen cells is hatched, I am thinking of taking the frame with the remaining capped cell to a Nuc and get some bees from another hive which has more bees and put them all together in a Nuc. Is that fine around this time of the year - end of July?
Thanks

 

[PeaBee]

If you wait until after the first queen cell has emerged you risk the other cell being killed before you can remove it. So if you want to use both cells I would get it out before either cell emerges and you have a virgin running around. There is still time for queens to get mated and nucs to build up before winter. I tend to err on the side of caution when making up late summer nuc and be a bit more generous with the brood and bees I put in them than i am with earlier nucs.

 

[Ian123]

Make up the nuc with a couple of good frames of sealed/emerging brood. You can always add more once the queens up and running. It’s a good time of year for nuc making if you can mitigate any robbing issues

 

[john1]

Thank you so much.