Should I do it or not???

[LocustHoney]

I just split my two really strong hives into 4. Now that means I have two hives with out queens. Everyone has given me there opinion with every secnerio you could possibly imagine. The only two that I want you guys to help me with are these. 1) Do nothing and let them take care of it themselves. 2) (I don't know about this one) Look in the hives after the 10 day mark and pick out the best looking queen cell. Then destroy the rest to avoid any possible swarms. The hives that are queenless are the same ones that use to be the strongest. I hope that makes sense. I put the queens in the new hives that I located at a different spot. So all the foragers are still at their old spot. What do you think???? :?

[Kirk-o]

If the two queenless hives had some eggs they will make some queen cells.I would open them up in ten days make sure there wer some queen cells if so leave them alone let them pic the best queen.Looking for the best looking queen cell dosen't mean much to me.But if you want the exact best thing maybe MIchael
Bush will respond.He is pretty smart.

I would leave it all to the bees after I made sure they drew some Supercedur
cells
kirk-0

[LocustHoney]

I am just wondering if they might swarm with new queens. I don't guess they will because I have ten frame deeps and switched 5 and 5. That should give them plenty of room, plus the super that was being drawn out. I just don't want some swarms. They are still pretty strong.

[BenC]

I don't think you need to worry too much about swarming.  I also would not destroy any extra queen cells, the bees will work it out.  You should open the box after ten days just to make sure they are each rearing at least one.  If the colonies are still mighty after the splits, and they raise multiple cells on more than one frame, I would be tempted to make further splits rather than let their work go to waste :) :)  If that does not fit you plan, understand that I'm at the point where I'm thinking more colonies is always better-  Haven't hit my critical mass yet :roll:  Multiple cells may be left in a split without the consequence of swarming.

[LocustHoney]

Now that sounds more sensible. I like the way you think. More colonies. Now, I expect them to raise queen cells on more than one frame. Is that wrong??