swarm cells what next?

[Bitbybit]

I posted yesterday regarding one of my hives swarming, fortunately while I was trying to get up the tree to capture the cluster they returned to the hive. The only reason for this that I can think of is that the queen was clipped and did not make the flight. (This was not something I had thought to ask the nuc supplier) I have now gone through the hive and have not found the queen, she was marked so even slimmed down for swarming I should be able to spot her. The hive is as follows:1st box - 3 frames of sealed and unsealed honey, 1 frame capped brood with 2 queencups in middle of frames lava in both, 1 frame half with capped brood half empty hatched cells, 1 frame mostly capped brood with some uncapped brood and 4 sealed queen cells - 2 in the middle of the frame 1 on the side of the frame and 1 on the bottom of the frame. 1 frame mostly sealed brood with some unsealed and 2 queencells on the bottom of the frame both sealed. 3 frames of capped and uncapped brood 4 empty playcups,1 frame mostly uncapped brood with 1 queencell in the middle of the frame with lava,1 frame mostly uncapped honey .
2nd box - 4 frames foundation, 1 frame drawn foundation, 2 frames drawn foundation with unsealed honey, 1 frame drawn foundation with a small amount of unsealed honey, 1 frame sealed and unsealed honey, 1 frame pollen and unsealed honey with some capped drone cells, 2 frames foundation with some drawn.
I would be delighted to hear my options. I have an empty hive from a second nuc that failed and access to land many miles away if required. I would like to go into next winter with a second colony but I will purcahse another nuc if splitting the hive makes no sense.

 

[VEG]

If you have charged queen cells then you could make up some nucs as you said your queen is no longer there.

 

[Bitbybit]

Thanks Veg, but I am new to this. My main hive will need a queen so what do I leave to ensure that goes well? and what should I take to make nucs?

 

[Swarm]

The swarm returned to this hive?

Re the queen, did you look under the hive?

I count 8 frames of brood in total so you could make up 2 nucs adding stores to each plus a QC ofc. I prefer to leave them one but you could leave two for insurance. If your other colony is in a position to donate, you could even get a third, combining all or some later to get the number you want to keep.

 

[VEG]

As above

 

[Bitbybit]

Thanks Swarm,
I went down to the OMF and had a good look around the front but not actually under the hive I will check again tomorrow.