I'm getting back into bee keeping after being more of a bee haver for the last 5 or 6 years. I've decided I want to take it more seriously moving forward. I started the season with 1 strong colony. Purchased 2 packages, cut a colony out of the roof of a building, and made up a nuc with some queen cells that sprang up along the way.. So this season I'm hoping to go into winter with 5 healthy colonies. Next year I'd like to get up to 10. The year after 20. These are just rough goals, but you get the gist (I'd like to be small time commercial-ish). I'm curious how to balance honey production vs increases. What different strategies are used to increase, and the pros and cons of them. I'm not wanting to spend more then I have to, so buying packages probably isn't what I'll go for. I did some research, but I'm not finding what I want (A list of different approaches and compare contrast between them). I'd be grateful if anyone knows a good website that goes over all this.
What my current assumed strategy now is, A) Lots of bait hives B) advertise for swarms C) Split some of my strong colonies in early spring.
I'm curious about making nucs after the main honey flow for overwintering (vs spring splits). I'm curious about raising my own queens for making splits.. I'm curious what I don't know about, what I'm not thinking about
Thanks all