Just wanted to title that for some in the rapid growth section. Bee yard expansion or what have you.
For rearing the queens you want the "cell building" colony to be big and strong. The cell "starting" don't have to be as big but of good size. It is advisable not to use a "nuke" to build queen cells with.
You also would like to have a good drone colony that has a good queen if possible. Also try to keep the colony you want to rear your queens from to a minimum of drones.
Once you have the capped queen cells, then you can put them in queen less nukes. It is then called a "mating" nuke. Once the queen is mated and you are sure she is laying a good pattern, then she goes on her intended journey.
As with a walk away split, it's a coin toss if you don't have enough bees for the cell building.
Rear 3 or 4 good queens the right way then split a big 2 deep colony 4 ways and give three a new laying queen and you should be good to go. and leave the old queen in the mother hive, unless she needs re queened.
night jon boy, :)doak