I've got a single hive currently. It's been a good bunch so far, hard working, peaceful, good builders, very low pest levels. They were obtained from a cutout in an urban home so they are adapted to this general area pretty well. I want to get another queen and hive going before winter as insurance. I don't expect much of a crop from them, if any. Here are my thoughts for direction, please comment where needed. I plan to pull a few brood frames to a nuc, then contain the queen on one in a press on cage to isolate her laying to a certain area. A day later I'll return her home. In the area she placed the fresh eggs I'll cut out a strip of cells, as in the Alley method. Then the frames will return to their hive. The cut cells will go onto a cell bar for finishing. I'm shooting for 3-5 ( properly spaced) with a need of only one in the end. The cell frame will then go in the top (third) medium of my hive, over an excluder. I'll place it between two active brood frames with pollen and nectar. Once sealed, I plan to put one on a brood frame into the 5 frame nuc, along with another brood frame and a nectar frame. Should I also place the other cells here? Caged? Once emerged, the new queen will hopefully mate and return to lay. If successful at this point, I'll build to 5 frames, then move to a new 3 box medium hive (progressively). If I included other caged cells, could I mate one, cage it, release the next to mate and repeat until all are mated? If so, how long could I bank the extras? Could they survive over winter here in the midwest? Assuming I can get the second hive going, what milestone points do I want to see by winter? Is it to late in the year to build them up from just a few frames? If the main hive keeps doing well I'll be able to supplement the weaker new hive up until winter close up.