Hi Gibb, I can add to this. I live in the city, population 7,000. I run no more than 5 hives but prefer 2. My area is surrounded by diverse forage from evergreens to town fruit trees and gardens. Other beekeepers say "Oh, you are lucky to live in the city, plenty of forage in the gardens there." But really the city runs dry of ready nectar after the spring flow and there aren't nearly as many blooming trees. What I am lacking for forage for my bees is fields of flowers and large orchards of flowers. We do have Star Thistle, a tough spiky drought resistant plant that provides premium honey, which is our savior thru summer. However California has been drought ridden and smokey summers are common, if we don't have a smokey summer it's a pure act of a forgiving God! If we get a very wet snowy winter the ground has deep moisture and the star thistle will provide plenty of nectar. But we don't get that kind of moisture anymore so the bees have to travel far and wide to gather their food. My bees work really hard!
That novel being said, and addressing your statement of "Going to make sure I do things different next year and be ready to pull nucs and or splits rather than try and just give them room not to swarm."
I have been complaining to my beek friends about getting just enough honey to give back to the bees for winter. So, one beek said "You have to have an army of bees all spring and summer to make lots of honey. So! I didn't do any splits or nucs this year to build my bee armies with 5 hives. But alas, I still didn't be but about 20 frames of honey to give back to 5, 10 frame hives.
For me, I don't know the answer to getting lots of honey for the bees and some left over for me. It's been a quandry all thru my 15 years of beekeeping.