Queen Rearing- Hopkins Method

The Hopkins method entails giving the source queen (your breeder or chosen stock) a frame of newly drawn comb. Positioned in the brood nest, the queen will take to the frame quickly. Once eggs are laid in the frame and begin to hatch (3 1/2 days), the frame is removed and cells are destroyed with the intention of leaving behind cells in rows, spaced sufficiently so queen cells are not webbed together when constructed by the hive rearing the queens. Please see the above link for details.

The first photo is the mass of bees on the cells.

Quite a few cells can be constructed in this way. As you can see below, I didn't destroy enough cells or larvae so the bees built more than I intended and also built quite a few drone cells from what I left behind. The frame is laid flat in the hive, spaced, and supported to achieve the vertical orientation for building the cells.

The side view:

Some of the cells were rather large while others were not. I used an exacto type knife to "extract" the cells. It was a bit messy, especially when the cells were webbed together. It does work though, although with the loss of a newly drawn comb. Jay Smith, for his method, says old comb is too tough for the bees to tear down and build proper queen cells.
On day 13 of the queen rearing process, I made up mating nucs and put in the cells the following day. I was confused by some of the literature about the best time to move queen cells. Once source indicated moving cells shortly after they are capped while the larva is still soft was best while another said wait till just before emergence when the queen cell is toughest. Anyone have thoughts on this?