Second swarm prep of the year

[Angry_Mob]

Thirteen days since my last hive inspection, I left it a bit longer than a my usual week (at this time of the year) as I thought it unlikely for a hive to make swarm preps twice in one year?

First time I did a pagden AS, this time I went and got a spare 14x12 nuc and removed two frames from the hive, checked for queen cells and placed them in the nuc along with the 2017 AMM queen which was moved to one side.

I then went through the main hive, and knocked down any queen cells that I seen.

The plan is to go back (5 days? - Thursday) and knock down any new queen cells so the hive is hopelessly queen less. I had thought about uniting a Buckfast nuc that I have but it occurred to me that incidentally I have another Buckfast queen on order from Ged Marshall, for dispatch on Thursday which I could use to requeen when it arrives.

Does this seem viable?

 

[Angry_Mob]

...or would it be better / possible to take the Buckfast queen along with say 3 frames of brood and young bees, spray some air freshener and place it into the main hive then requeen the weakened nuc? This would hopefully get my production colony up to speed again quicker?