Anyone got any good video of ways to split hives? Walk off method is probably the best for me.
Yes that can happen but you only need to make one queen not two. Picking boxes from the top and smoking as you go is likely to push the queen into the bottom box. If you observe where the most of the brood is assume the queen is in the bottom box and put that one where the most of the brood is not.No chance for them to make a new queen.
This is absolutely correct. If a colony cannot afford a loss of its bees, and brood, there should be no split of any kind.If the donor colony can't afford to lose a consolidated outer portion of it's core cluster, you shouldn't be taking anything from it!
I think it is but if I had the experience maybe not.Acebird... Yes that will work, however there is no certainty that the smoke will drive her to the bottom. If it does, and most of the brood is in the bottom box, and you have driven her down with smoke, she will be in the bottom box with most of your brood. If boxes above does not have viable eggs, that colony is doomed.
I prefer to find her, and with experience, it is not all that difficult.