Tried a split this year and there was something I missed (the queen). There were 3 queen cells and 2 had been stung out, but when I found no evidence of the queen laying in what I thought was a more then reasonable timeline, I used a nuc and joined it to the split hive. Unfortunately, she must have been there as the nuc's queen disappeared. 'Hindsight' I thought that I was looking at a queen-less hive at this point. I did not see eggs and added a frame of brood and eggs hoping for a queen cell. No cells as I went on vacation. 2 weeks later I find a capped queen cell and stumble across a very injured queen.
What to do? I have a weak hive, a weak queen(damaged wings) and queen cell that will hatch any day. I also have a queen less hive with worker queens. (Yes, I have tried a shakeout and added new eggs/brood) I am thinking of combining the queen-less with the weak queen hive.
I'm going to lose both hives if I do nothing and it is August (Tacoma Wa)so will a V-Queen get mated well?
Is it too late?
The queen-less hive has more resources then the split?
Ideas????????????