This important discussion is very important to the beginning beekeeper! This will be our subject all this week. Each day we will discuss an important element of a nuc. This will be a five part blog. We must start with what is a nuc?
A nuc or nucleus is a 5 frame box of bees. The nuc generally has 3 frames of brood and 2 frames of honey. The nuc is roughly a 4 to 7 week old “starter” hive which has a queen and approx. 5,000 to 8,000 bees. The counts can vary due to how old the nuc is and how productive the queen is in the hive.
Why would anyone want to purchase a nuc? The answer is quite simple. First, you have a quality controlled nuc, in which, the queen has reared her own brood and the beekeeper has measured her brood production over a period of 4 weeks. You will actually have an advantage over a package purchase because the queen has been quality controlled in her brood production. Another important fact is the hive has accepted the queen in the colony.
A package of bees will only have a newly caged queen placed in the package. No guarantee that the queen is a good queen and no guaranty that the hive bees will accept the queen. This is the disadvantage you find in a package purchase vs. a nuc.
If you have any questions, please send us an e-mail! Tomorrow we will look at the importance of the wood ware.
Ray