Hooper . . . but I have only got as far as swarm control lol.
Good section of the book to familiarise yourself with, given you have a Carniolan queen. Be prepared early next year to split your colony, putting your queen and shaking the flying bees into a new box of foundation on the site of the current colony and give them a feed. This should probably have them peaking at the right time, instead of thinking of swarming before they have had time to store honey for you.
Give them plenty of super space, early and have that spare box (the third one) for when you find your first queen cells when you least expect them at the end of June, or early July.
Meanwhile your non-flying bees should be bringing up all the brood and looking to make a new queen. If you had split these into two nucs, because of reducing size, the imperative to make a queen is that much more and so, even if one goes awry you still have a good plan and could unite them into one. Single up to one open queen cell carefully, choosing the biggest and juciest to go forward. Once the queen cells are sealed, have patience
Bear in mind that there were few or no foraging bees in the nucs, so initially feeding them with a frame feeder is a good option, A six frame nuc, with five frames and a feeder, dummy frame or sixth frame later on gives slightly more flexibility than a standard five frame, but either is equally good.
ALWAYS have a spare hive of some sort available ready to press into service without delay.
Seek out an alternative apiary site for bees, so that your alternatives for contingency are wide open should you need them.
My personal history: two Carni colonies with clipped queens April 2009, swarmed due to late equipment availability. Four went into winter and survived into spring.
Four quickly became eleven, increased to thirteen and finally settled to eleven going into winter 2010. Most of my honey crop came from an early shook swarm. Swarms, gained one and lost two.
I work with a busy bee farmer who is a font of knowledge (thought you would like that!) and get to shake a stick at more bees than you can see - or something similar.
Always probe your mentor's knowledge. The phrase, "who am I to question my mentor's knowledge" doesn't really wash. By having him explain his reasoning and discussing concepts that you are coming to terms with you will understand them better and could even cause your mentor to review what he knows and occasionally come up with an improved or alternative course of action that he might not have thought about. After all, he probably doesn't review his beekeeping knowledge with peers on a regular basis, so discussion with you could be a major part of his expressing, and reviewing, his knowledge.
You will already know that being a teacher is a great way to learn, because you don't want to be found lacking in essential knowledge when a pupil asks you a question. If you were certain that pupils wouldn't ask, would you yourself have to be quite as clever in the first place. The difference between a teacher and a lecturer I guess.
Sorry for the lengthy response and having probably gone way off track, but I hope that the advice is of some use. Doubtless we can both review both the advice and your experience this time next year. I'm always prepared to sit in the corner with a big "D" hat on if needs be.
