Making a split.

The hive is ready. The bees are on 9-10 frames. Fresh eggs have been laid in the last 3 days and there is brood on 7 frames. There are also a few newly born drones flying about.

I take out a frame with less than eggs laid in the last 3 days and another with capped brood. I place the frames without any bees on them in the Nuc.

I place the Nuc on top of the old hive and smoke the entrance to make the bees go upstairs.

I leave this overnight for the nurse bees to go up to their brood.

The next day I remove the Nuc from the old hive and place it nearby. The nurse bees realize that they have no queen so set about making a new one. It will take 16 days for this new queen to emerge as a queen. At such time, she can start laying and building the colony up to full strength.