Update on cutouts

[gardeningfireman]

I went through the first hive today. No queen, no uncapped brood, some capped brood, 4 capped queen cells, about half the original amount of bees. Maybe they swarmed? Thinking about transferring them into a 7 frame nuc box.  Or should I leave them in the deep box and fill it out with frames of honey? I plan on bringing home the second colony tonight and going through it tomorrow. If there is still enough uncapped brood in it, I will put some into the first colony.

[gardeningfireman]

I brought home the second hive and went through it today. No queen, but two queen cells, both kind of small. I will put one of the queen cells from the first one into it tomorrow. That will give me three queen cells in each of the cutout colonies. I added several frames of brood and bees (from a friend) to the first colony to give it a boost until the new queen starts laying. Both hives now have two deeps, with brood, honey, nectar, and a few empty frames. I also have entrance feeders on them and have the scrap honey comb from their original hives nearby for them. My friend also gave me a couple frames of brood and bees with two queen cells for my nuc/observation hive. I think they will do okay.