It's hard to know exactly what happened with your split. When a queen hatches successfully, the queen cell has a perfectly round hole at the bottom of the cell. If you saw that, a virgin queen likely emerged from the cell. If the cells are cut on the sides, the queen likely did not emerge alive.

Split successful or not?

Beekeeping news, Beginners /

I created a split with a 5 frame nuc about 3 weeks before cyclone Yasa….. One frame had 3 queen cells in the middle of the frame that were sealed. I think hatch time for the queen’s would have been around cyclone yasa time… I got worried so about 2 days after Yasa i put a frame with fresh eggs and larvae…. I checked the frame with queen cells they were all empty. I then checked the nuc today and all the new eggs and larvae are now capped worker brood… No new Queen cells… What could be going on as I couldn’t find the queen or any fresh eggs? Shall I wait a week and then check for a queen and put fresh eggs in if there isn’t any queen? Any Suggestions? 🤠

Posted by Zackery Fox on https://www.facebook.com/groups/FijiBeekeepers

Answer from John Caldeira:

It’s hard to know exactly what happened with your split. When a queen hatches successfully, the queen cell has a perfectly round hole at the bottom of the cell. If you saw that, a virgin queen likely emerged from the cell. If the cells are cut on the sides, the queen likely did not emerge alive.

Did the parent colony create the queen cells in the middle of a frame or did the split create them? Okay if the split created them, but queen cells from the parent colony middle of a frame are usually emergency cells or supercedure cells, which are normally not taken to create splits because the parent colony needs them. Swarm cells are on the bottom and edges of the comb and are best for creating splits.

Generally, when making “walk-away” splits, it is best to leave the split colony alone for 4 weeks without adding any brood. If no eggs or young larvae can be seen after 4 weeks, the split failed.

John Caldeira
It's hard to know exactly what happened with your split. When a queen hatches successfully, the queen cell has a perfectly round hole at the bottom of the cell. If you saw that, a virgin queen likely emerged from the cell. If the cells are cut on the sides, the queen likely did not emerge alive.
It’s hard to know exactly what happened with your split. When a queen hatches successfully, the queen cell has a perfectly round hole at the bottom of the cell. If you saw that, a virgin queen likely emerged from the cell. If the cells are cut on the sides, the queen likely did not emerge alive.


I recommend you wait for few weeks. Young virgin queens are hardly noticeable when they hatch out. Another thing when bees are left queenless for few weeks they create bad queens if larvae is given late.

Imraz Ali
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