Hi All
 
A number of very good points have been raised so far in this debate.
 
I would like to add a few more.
 
A package has an ageing population. A number of things change in bees
as they age, including how much the sting hurts. If you are new to
bees you want to get used to painless stings. In my experience a nuc
tends to be an inaggresive and very young population of bees. The
bees are working really hard, so most die before they become old
enought to hurt like hell.
 
An old colony, or even a swarm has a window of about three weekes
before the bees begin to have serious numbers of new bees replacing
them. I have noticed that a swarm that has a few frames of bees but
no cute little fluffy youngsters yet will not sting intentionally,
but if you make a amistake it hurts.
 
Secondly and more importantly, when a bee hatches one of it's first
tasks is to be a resevoir for nectar that has been foraged. Nectar
is stored in the bees honey stomach. Foragers don't want to carry
excess weight, so this nectar is only stored in non-foraging bees.
Young bees therefore store nectar. Some of this has to be absorbed
(eg fructose by osmosis) and the bees have no choice but to use this.
Usually this goes into wax production. As a bee ages it's ability (as
determined by a layer of tissue called I think the wax endothelium or
something like that - see Honeybees and Wax, Hepburn R.H) to produce
wax deteriorates. This can to a certain extent be reversed by a
shortage of young bees, but never to the same degree as having
genuine young bees. The same applies for the glands producing royal
jelly.
 
So - a nuc is constantly producing young bees. You have four or five
frames of drawn comb in it, with probably four of brood. You can take
these and put them in a brood box, puting one frame of foundation
between two of brood - the bees will draw this in about three days if
you are feeding them. The queen will lay this frame completely and
you will have a generation of healthy young bees on virgin comb. Keep
expanding the brood nest this way.
 
 
Another interesting thing is that it has been scientifically proven
that the foraging urge of bees is in direct relation to the amount of
empty comb available to the bees. (within reason)
 
Hope this helps.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
Eastern Cape Prov.
South Africa
 
Rule 1.) Cape bees are for those that hate rules.
 
Rule 2.) Standard Disclaimer applies to this post.