> In any case, I put a lot of faith in what has been demonstrated to work in
> the field for a period of at least several seasons.  Mike, how long have
> you been practicing this method?
>    
I started wintering nucleus colonies in the 90s, and right away made 
nucs from nucs to control swarming. I've always made some of my 
mid-summer nucs from wintered nucleus colonies that weren't the best, by 
allowing those slow nucs to build up and nuking them in mid-summer. They 
built up in 10 frame doubles after transferal.
This year I decided to use some of the good nucleus colonies and not 
transfer them into 10 frame equipment. Rather, I left them in their nuc 
boxes and expanded up as needed with comb.

Of the two methods, I like the second. It gives me plenty of brood to 
stock my cell builders in May and June, and plenty more to make the nucs 
I need to winter over for next year. This year the plan is to save back 
75 nucleus colonies as brood factories, be able to stock 20 cell 
builders with seven frames of brood, three times each, and go on to make 
500, 4 over 4 nucs to winter.


Mike

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