Thanks everyone, I got up this morning and accompanied by some really angry bees I went all in. I realise having reread the various posts I did make a mistake, I'm sure I made loads but at least one for sure.
I started with the calm colony who were so docile it was a pleasure as usual. The brood box did not contain a lot of stores, as it is populated with mostly brood and has two supers above so I:
- Took one of the end BB frames with pollen and some open stores and placed it at the front of the nuc
- Took the frame with queen, destroyed some queen cells, placed it next to the first
- Shook two more frames of bees in, looked like a good supply so I was at least happy with that bit!
- Third BB frame was a really old tatty one I had to brush up and clean a bit but had comb on it so thought that best (glad I kept it now!)
- Fourth was a brand new frame with foundation
Then I needed to get creative because I don't think there was adequate stores and I had no more BB frames. So:
- Fifth a heavy super with a some capped and some open stores which I swapped out of the nice five for a new frame with foundation
- Sixth a dummy board I had to make out of some OSB to reduce the gap at the end.
- Closed it all up!
Question: I leave the nuc sealed for a couple of days and then open up to let them out, yes? I need to work out what to do with it as I have no more hives or gear, so a couple of days would be ideal to find this queen a nice new home.
The rest was relatively easy but for my mistake. Short on BB frames I made another dummy board; after taking two BB frames for the nuc I replaced with my last spare foundation BB frame and a dummy board. I turned to the 2nd hive, dispatched the 'angry queen' and simply swapped a BB frame with a third frame from the nice hive... I assume that's okay!?
The mistake: I left one
sealed queen cell in each hive whilst removing all the others (there were none in the angry hive anyway - it's a developing colony).
I now realise I should have left an open cell in each, destroying all the sealed cells... oops! What is the best course of action, as I'm really not wanting to go back to what are some seriously angry followers now? There are no open or developing queen cells because I removed them all, there are only the two sealed ones. Do I go back in 2-3 days and squish these two whilst leaving other open cells or is it two late now?
It felt very destructive today, removing both queens and destroying all but one queen cell so I'd appreciate any advice. I need to go back in 3 days to ensure no other cells develop on the angry hive frames, I assume it is then I 'could' favour alternate developing cells if they are on the correct frames or do I just go with the ones I have chosen?
Once again, thanks for all your help. Cheers, CP.