Paul Cronshaw wants to know how to make splits quickly. I usually remove
my split from the top box. I use 1 comb of honey, a comb of pollen, a
larvae comb, and two combs of sealed brood, followed by another comb of
honey. Shake all the bees off these combs when removing them from the
hive. Place them in an empty hive body, and fill with four empty combs.
Replace those taken from the parent colony with empties. Place an
excluder on top of the parent colony, and your beeless split on top of
the excluder. Replace the covers. The next morning, remove the split and
place it on a new stand. Give it a caged queen. Total time is about 15
minutes. Larvae frame lures lots of young bees up to the split. Old bees
fly home. Queens get accepted well.