Splits or nucs

[Popparand]

Sorry to be a bit thick but I have read so much stuff about swarm control/colony increase every one with a different method (and with typos/mistakes that make the whole thing meaningless) that I would really appreciate some guidance on the best strategy to follow.

Effectively I have one mega productive colony (now on fourth super), two OK and two no-hopers. I have tried giving the no-hopers a frame of bees with a closed queen cell but they just destroy it (probably because of genetic difference). All three of the productive colonies are producing queen cells.

So what I would like to do is take brood plus queen cells or the queen if I can find her and start a new colony. Should I put half the brood with/without the queen into another brood box or into a nuc? Can some one point me towards a guide that is unambiguous and not obviously wrong, please. Obviously next time round the no-hoper bees are going into the hedge.

The objective being to replace the two no-hopers with productive colonies!

 

[Swarm]

Have to explain no hopers, giving cells to them and having them destroyed would suggest a queen is present and if so you need to remove her first.
Removing your queen/s from the other colonies, I would take a couple of brood frames and make up the rest of the nuc with comb and stores. You will need to inspect the main colony to reduce the cells but your queen in her nuc can be repositioned.

 

[drex]

Three colonies are producing queen cells, so they are likely to be planning to swarm. Therefore to avoid losing bees you need to do an artificial swarm on these colonies asap.
I guess you have little experience, so I suggest you read up and do a Pagden AS. This is probably the easiest to do and understand what you are doing ( very important), even though it may not be the most efficient. So many methods for swarm control I am not surprised you are confused. I tell all my beginners to learn one method, get used to that, and then they can start looking at other methods. I always teach Pagden first off.
The Pagden will give you double the number of colonies ( assuming success)
I agree with swarm. From what you say the "no hopers" are likely to have a queen in there. How good are you at spotting eggs? It sounds like you have trouble spotting queens, so settle for seeing eggs. Excluding laying workers, that at least means a queen has been there within the last 3 days.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Do an artificial swarm with your large colony. Then you'll have queencells to use elsewhere. You could try the no-hopers with a protected queencell and see if the virgin that emerges replaces the queen if you can't find the no-hope queen. (I did it once and it worked).