Splitting hive - one died - Input please!

[greenbtree]

a friend of mine who got into beekeeping at the same time I did (and got his bees from the same source)  Just split one of his two hives.  He installed the queen in the one left queenless.  He inspected a few days later and this is what he found.  Queenless hive - killed new queen, there are two queen cells that were there when he installed queen, but damaged one in the split.  The split that the original queen was left in - ALL DEAD - the entire hive.  I would like to know what questions I should be asking him.  Below is some ideas I had, please chime in.  We are in Iowa.  The weather here turned really nasty just after installation (40s, rain, one night below freezing).

1. Did he split the hives equally?  Maybe he left too much brood, too few bees in the one that died?  Would the remaining bees try to warm the brood to the point of death?
2. Should he have removed the queen cells from the split he was adding the queen to?
3. Should he have given the queenless split more time to realize that they were queenless?  I think he did it same day.
4. Should he have left candy covered for a day or two in the hive and then gone back in and uncovered it?
5. How many frames total were there in the hive before the split.  Is a "frame of bees" covered densly on BOTH sides?  Maybe he should have never split at all.
6.  Did he leave them in one deep?  He didn't add another deep did he?  I know he doesn't have any nuc boxes.

Anything else I should be asking?  This is a bit like the blind leading he blind. :-D
I would like to figure this out so I don't end up making a similar mistake!!
JC
 

[greenbtree]

Anyone want to give me some advice here?

JC

[Irwin]

Most of the people are at work please give them some time and they will help. I wish I could but I'm only on my second year and I probably do more harm then good.

[riverrat]

was these package bees new this year if so i would have never split them this early. sounds like he just turned the queen loose in the split hive if im  reading right if so that would have been a death sentence if he kept both hives close by the worker bees would have went back to the original hive if the original hive was left in its original position which would have weakened the hive. were the dead head firssdt in the cells i would almost venture to gues they starved to death if the weather wsa bad and you wasnt feeding them just my 2 cents worth

[greenbtree]

This was an established hive - we got them from someone getting out of beekeeping.  He got 1 and I got 2.  The hive he split was queenless as far as he could tell.  There were two queen cells, but he damaged one accidentally.  So he split it and 12 hours later installed a caged queen in both. The hive that he split had 4 frames of bees if you count a frame as one side, 2 frames of bees if you count both sides (Right off this seems too small to me to even think about splitting.)  The hive with the two queen cells killed their queen but were active.  In the other hive the caged queen and the bees appeared dead,  just clinging to the frame surface (Maybe not really dead?) Only about 3 bees head first in cells and they have a full frame of capped honey in with them.  He said he split hive equally as best he could.
I split one of mine also same weekend - mine I split one with old queen, one with three swarm cells.  Both seem to be doing all right although I won't really know until I can inspect (hopefully this weekend if weather is as predicted, it has been horrible here lately.)  My other hive was small and apparently queenless - could not find queen and there was only capped scattered brood, no larva or eggs.  I re-queened them Sunday.  As of yesterday she was still alive in cage with bees working on the plug.  Couldn't look today, it's been in the 40s and pouring all day.  We are still learning as much as we can!  Thanks for help!

[fish_stix]

Some posters here will tell you that installing a new queen in a hive with swarm or supersedure cells is OK. I've had really poor results with that method. Every time we've tried, the bees have killed the new queen, even if we destroy the cells. The only way to make a split when cells are present is to take the old queen and some brood/bees and start the new hive with them; let the old hive have the swarm cells.

[mysticantiques]

greenbtree, nice to see another Iowan on here! I'm about 190 miles from you. My first reaction would be that the hive that is dead or near-dead, doesn't have enough food. I haven't done any requeening myself at all, so I have no basis on which to voice any opinion.
Leaving the swarm cells to the old hive and starting another seems like sound advice to me, as long as you have some frames of brood with some bees on it to spare. But certainly leave the candy plug in your queens cage. It takes them a while to chew that out. By then, they will likely have come to accept the smell of the new queen as their own.
I'd put some mason jars of sugar water (2 parts sugar 1 part water, dissolved well) with nail holes in the lids upside down, inside an otherwise empty super on them. Then put the outer cover back on. It has been nasty and cold, but if they're starving, it's not gonna get any better for a while. When this rain finally lets up, it's still gonna be a bit before the pollen and nectar are fit to provide food for them again. Feeding them can't hurt.

[indypartridge]

...The hive he split was queenless as far as he could tell.  ... The hive that he split had 4 frames of bees if you count a frame as one side, 2 frames of bees if you count both sides (Right off this seems too small to me to even think about splitting.) 

No, you don't count "sides" of a frame. A standard box has 10 frames, so it sounds like your friend split a queenless hive with only 2 frames of bees, during a spell of bad weather. Yes, it was too small to think about splitting. I'd hesitate to call it an "established hive", it was barely nuc-sized. You didn't say if the 2 frames of bees had much brood, but it seems like it was a weak colony to begin with.