xbeeman,
I thought of recommending splitting the remaining hives but if he only has a few hives it will cut into his honey production and the amount of money on the table isn't all that much.
I do splits on our own hives but because we are growing our business we also buy packages. It's not always easy to predict what your overwinter losses are going to be. Past years I have used 25% losses (including weak hives that I merge into another one) for financial purposes. This year I figured it was going to be higher and used 50% for planning purposes. In NE Ohio we had an early frost in September that basically eliminated the late honey flow from goldenrod. A lot of beekeepers had high losses last winter. With all the rain over the summer I didn't feel like the hives were looking as strong as I would like. So I ordered 10 packages. Part of this has to do with my desire to only run carnolians at our new apiary. I'll do splits off of existing hives at our current apiary to make up for any losses there. The 10 packages I get I'll build up this year and then do splits (probably get 3 out of each hive) next year from the best looking hives. If they build fast and look really good I might split them this year.
Another thing to do is to try and get on the swarm list with your area bee club. Have some inexpensive cards made for you at
www.vistaprint.com and give them to the local police, sheriff, etc. Tell them that you will get swarms (free bees! Only downside is you won't have a clue about the genetics of the bees).
As usual, just my 2 cents.
Mike