Very cool. After seeing those photos the first thing I thought of was "trap out" Honestly,trap outs are pretty easy. It'll take around 2 months, but it's nowhere near as labor intensive as a cut out. You won't get the queen but you will have a nice fresh one in the hive you get from the trap out. From your "slimmed" photo's there are SHB's in your neck of the woods. I've not done a trap out with SHB's but I have been told if done in early spring they're no problem.