Alright, looking for a little direction/advice here.
I went through my hive (2 deeps, 1 medium) this weekend and triple checked all of my frames. No sign of the queen or eggs. Plenty of capped brood and larvae but the cells seemed to be getting backfilled with nectar. However, I had a load of these gals:
So I stood there and thought for a while and need to know if my plan is good or not. Quick background, I'm in public accounting so needless to say the next 2 weeks are by far my busiest of the year.
What I ended up doing was going through every single frame and picking out 4-5 of the best looking queen cells I could find. I took my deep box that was empty and set it up as a stand alone hive. I brought over 2-3 frames of brood including 1 with a couple of queen cells in it along with 2 frames of food. I shook a solid 3-4 frames of nurse bees in the box to make sure the population was supported. I finished it off with a couple of foundation frames and a 2 gallon frame feeder and closed it up.
In the original hive, I consolidated the brood nest and put a couple of foundation frames in then buttoned it up with the medium super which had a little bit of brood as well.
I had already ordered a queen hoping to split my hive later this month after work slows down and I get some days off again. That isn't until the 21st though. So my thinking with this plan was best case scenario, both queens get mated and I end up with 3 queens at which point I will decide whether to cull one of the new mated or go for another split. Worst case scenario, neither queen gets mated and I can limp along until my new queen arrives in 3 weeks.
Solid plan or no? It's the best I could come up with on the spot.
