>I agree Michael. Do you put the new hive in the place of the old one? I have done it both ways and if one part of the split is week I place it in the original spot to help boost the population of the weak one.
There are several things you can do to equalize things. But the important thing is that you account for the drift in some way. One is to face both the new halves at the old location and leave nothing there. The bees returning then will have to choose. Another is to just shake extra bees in the one being moved to the new location. Another is to plan on them returning. A cut down split leverages this to get more honey. You move the open brood with adhering bees, the old queen and almost all the stores to the new location and PLAN for the foragers to return to the old location and, since there is no brood to care for, one less box to live in, a lot of capped and emerging brood there will be a huge work force to collect the flow. The secret to this, of course, is the timing. This needs to be done two weeks before the flow.