BBKA Forum

Cheers guys I appreciate it.
I'll go the way Nigel recommends - moving queen into new box and splitting that way. Hopefully then they'll settle their swarm/supersedure fever.
The mentor said they're good bees and she's a good queen so hopefully her new colony will keep her.
Either way, I'd like more than one strong colony.

Also, I forgot to ask...

Say I find 3 QCs in my main hive..

I take queen and ZERO QCs to nuc.

Can I cut out one QC and put in my mini mating hive and scoop some bees in, leaving 2 QCs in main hive?

Yup, you only need one Queen cell in any split. Personally I wrap each cell in foil leaving only the tip exposed up the tube created. It is just an insurance against the workers making a mistake and tearing it down, then having to raiser much inferior emergency cells. If the mininuc raises a good laying queen you can requeen the nuc and replace the originsl swarm queen. I am always looking to keep queens as young as possible.