Quick history: in a late December inspection I found a hive that was queenless and had many QC's on several frames.
I saw myself, as having only 2 options: combine this hive with another to get it thru the remaining "winter", or experiment to see if Queens could be raised here in Dec/Jan. I decided to experiment.
On Dec 23rd I split 1 frame with QC's from this hive, over to a Nuc, with no bees. I then added Nurse Bees and honey/pollen Stores from a much stronger hive hoping to give the newly formed Nuc as good a chance as possible.
I left all bees and remaining QC's in the original hive. My goal: double the [slim] chances of success.
Today - I've just come back inside from inspecting both hives.
The results: The original hive - I saw 1.5 frames of eggs newly, and properly, laid eggs. Since I started the inspection from the outside edge, I did not see the queen, and did not want to proceed further. I closed up the hive.
The Nuc: I found a new and beautiful Queen on the first outside frame. She was quite calm. There were eggs, and brood in all stages on that frame - suggesting the hive has been queenright for more than 10 days. I closed up the hive and did not proceed further.
Final score: 2 for 2 queenright!
Now, I can't imagine that either queen is very well bred due to the limited amount of drones currently, and I expect both [most likely] to need requeening within the year. But - now both hives will have the ability to take advantage of the upcoming flow in the short view - so I'm plus-2 instead of minus-1 on hives. I am both intrigued and happy - thought I'd share this info with all of you.
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