Quick check on hives number 1 and 3 to confirm queen cell production.

Hive #1
A few days ago I added another frame of brood and eggs from hive #2 to give the bees another chance to raise a queen. To my surprise, the girls took the chance and there were 4 queen cells hanging off various points of the brood frame I put in. Good news.

Hive # 3 – Nuc #1 Split
Hive 3 still has a ton of bees in it. Much more than I would have expected at this point since they’re quenless. Checking for cells I found 7 well-formed cells on two different frames. I decided to split off a nuc. I pulled one of the frames with the queen cells, a frame of honey, frame of pollin, and another empty frame of drawn comb from last year. All went into a 5 frame nuc with a frame feeder, 2:1 syrup, and Megabee. (This will be Nuc # 1 going forward.) I placed the nuc on top of the parent hive and faced it the opposite direction.
I would have been able to split another nuc off one of #1′s queen cells, but I’m out of nuc boxes right now. I have one more, but it’s being painted.