Mini mating nucs just aren't for me

This is my first year trying to raise queens. As I am the type who will do a lot of research and then action, I studied what people were using to mate queens. The one item that nearly all of the queen breeders doing YouTube videos neglect to mention is that for every cell you make you need a mating box. And bees to put in them. That's the largest problem in queen raising, getting them mated. Some people use queen castles, a large box divided in three or four compartments and each has some frames and a queen is added to go mate. Some are using full size boxes and some a form of mini. I also read a very good book that's available on pdf called Practical Queen Rearing, by Frank C Pellett. Written about 100 years ago, still has some great information. In his book Frank Pellett mentions the mini mating nuc, three frames 4 1/2 inches square. At the time of publication  they were forty cents each. Wow! I found that a lot of queen breeders use that same type of mini nuc today, just to get the queen mated.  So I decided to make some double two medium frame mating boxes. Essentially a five frame nuc with a divider board in the middle and opposing entrances. So I have two nucs facing different directions with two frames each. The theory seemed sound, I'm using almost exclusively medium frames so I have at least as much if not more area than the mini's.  The first go around was pretty good. I got 5 of 8. But then different things happened. I learned that I needed to really be on top of what's happening in the nuc. Once the queen mates, she can lay up every cell in two or three days, (assuming there is some food stores in some cells). And if one is not ready they can and will swarm. I had two boxes do this. Put in a virgin, came back two weeks later to find some capped brood and a queen cell. Two weeks might be too long but I have a full time day job and need to be able to juggle queening at the same time. I also learned it's pretty hard to catch a queen in that narrow two frame box. It took me three tries yesterday to catch one and at first she actually flew off.  I was told at bee college to leave the top open and she'll come back.  Did just that and sure enough in about 10 minutes she was back. For both the space in catching and the extra area for her to lay in, I think I'll go to three and four frame boxes. In the off season I'll convert these six doubles I have into four frame boxes, just remove the center divider board, or cut a section out of it so the bees can cross.  I plan to try at least a few three frame boxes, maybe five or six, whatever I can make from a single sheet of ply. They'd be five inches across and easier to catch a queen in. By mid April I'd like to have 40 mating nucs running so that's 120 to 160 frames, plus the actual boxes. A lot of inventory. Might rethink this and shoot for 25 this coming year and 50 the next year. I have almost six months to think about it and get ready. Guess I'll stay busy during the winter.