Hello all, thought I'd post a final update before opening a new thread as it really couldn't have gone any worse;
complete disaster.
As we know (recap) I made the nuc with the nice queen, who is still alive and well in the flourishing little box. I selected a queen cell on two frames form the nice hive and swapped one frame into the angry mob whilst leaving the other as the only cell in the nice hive. I went back in after 4-5 days and squished all the other cells and then waited.
Since then 4 weeks have elapsed and the hives have been very busy on a generous flow, filling supers but also the brood boxes because
there is no brood. There are no signs of life in either hive aside the remaining bees making honey, loads of new nectar stores and pollen where there was once brood. Same in both hives which I must admit is very disappointing. To top it off the remaining bees as as nasty as ever once disturbed and the last two hours we've had several angry bee incidents/attacks. Suffice to say the other members of the family have called it a day on that hive and insisting we let it 'go'.
Shame, went from two large hives down to a nuc and now I need to get that queen back into the original hive safely whilst harvesting the honey from both hives before they become too weak and get robbed
Thanks for all your input and help, I stand by what I did but cannot understand why both new queens, probably more than 2 given the 3 'swarms', just absconded when they were so healthy before. Now off to create a new newbie thread to find out how best to introduce the original queen back into a large hive full of stores and old lady bees!! Cheers, CP.