Creating a Hive from New Queen Cells

[Two Bees]

This past Saturday, I opened a hive consisting of 2 deeps and a medium super without an excluder and found it to be packed with bees.  I did a simulated swarm by removing 5 frames with the old queen and placed them into a new deep to create a new hive.  I replaced the removed frames with frames of foundation (didn't have any drawn comb) in the old hive.  Now I suspect the old hive is raising a new queen!

I am considering trying to time the hatching of the new queens from the old hive and remove a frame that has queen cells (assuming more than one frame of queen cells) and placing it in another hive along with 2-3 frames of brood/honey/pollen to create a THIRD hive.  I believe I read in one of MB's writings about splits where he places each frame of queen cells in separate nucs.   Did I understand you correctly, MB?

Thoughts? 

[Michael Bush]

>I believe I read in one of MB's writings about splits where he places each frame of queen cells in separate nucs.   Did I understand you correctly, MB?

I like doing that.  I can end up with a bunch of good queens.

[Pond Creek Farm]

What do you do with all of those queens?  Do you immediately create new hives or bank them?  How do you get a bunch of queens too?  Doesn't the first to hatch go around and kill the others in their cells?  (This is only what I have read and have zero experience with raising queens).  The idea of raising queens to re-queen hives, however, sounds fascinating (and hard).

[Michael Bush]

>What do you do with all of those queens?  Do you immediately create new hives or bank them?

It depends on what I need, but having extra queens is always handy.  In my case I sell them.

>  How do you get a bunch of queens too?

Every nuc that has a frame of cells will end up with a queen.  If five frames have queen cells, that's five queens.

> Doesn't the first to hatch go around and kill the others in their cells?

In that nuc, yes.

[Two Bees]

Thanks for the info!  This weekend, I think I will try to remove some of the queen cells before they have had a chance to hatch.

That would mean that the new queen cells would be 8 days old (last Saturday to this Saturday) if the old hive started with a one-day old egg.  Or the new queen cells could be as old as 11 days if they used a three-day old egg. 

So, if I'm going to pull queen cells for nucs, I better make the move this weekend!

Anyone see a problem with my plan (or math)?