Double brood box full - advice needed about splits
Hi, Having lost a hive over winter, I currently have just a single National hive with a marked 2024 queen. I added a second brood box about 3 weeks ago as the colony was thriving and the single brood box had become congested. Both brood boxes are now full of bees, stores, eggs, larva, brood in all stages. There doesn't appear to be much space for the queen to lay in either box.
The bottom brood box has stores/honey on 6 frames, brood on 7 frames, bees cover 9 frames
The top brood box has stores/honey on 9 frames, brood on 5 frames, bees cover 8 frames.
There is drone brood in both brood boxes and I have seen a few drones during my inspection this evening.
The hive is fairly calm. There are no queen cups in either box.
Ideally I would like to do a split and create two additional hives, giving me three hives in total
If I simply move the queen with frames of brood/nurse bees and stores to a nuc ,and then separate the two brood boxes on to different stands, am I correct in assuming the bees will try to raise a new queen from the existing eggs in each of the brood boxes whilst the original queen gets to work in the nuc? or should I just do a Demaree?
Grateful for any thoughts/advice
thanks
Haydn