On Sun, 1 Mar 1998, Paul Cronshaw, D.C. wrote:
 
... could not find one queen...IS there a faster method of splitting hives?
 
You can split a hive in the following way, almost instantaneously, even if
you can't find the queen.
 
Lift off the top super and brush the bees from each frame into the bottom
super.  Make sure there are at least 3 frames with open brood in the
top box which is now empty of bees. Put a queen excluder on the bottom box
and replace the top box. Bees will move up through the excluder to
take care of the brood, leaving the queen in the bottom box under the
excluder. Give them a few hours to move before you make your split.
 
 
Donald Aitken
11710-129 Street
Edmonton Alberta Canada
T5M 0Y7