"I'd be interested in how long the bees were in the boxes before the winter 
season.  My one-time problem was related to transferring the hives late in 
the season, I think.  I just inverted each brood chamber, lifted the wooden 
box off, slid a new plastic box on, and turned the brood chamber right side 
up again.  I figured that would not be as big a disturbance as moving frame 
by frame."

Well, I can't tell you exactly, because my hard drive crashed last fall, and, unbeknown to me, my 'Bee' folder was never picked up by my back-up software (since corrected), so I lost everything - all my individual hive records, queen lineages, weight profile, bloom dates...... I still have the mark where I dope-slapped myself.   BUT, I do know that I started nucs as late as mid-August, and they made it.  But this was just before our main goldenrod bloom, when we get a strong surge of pollen and nectar, so maybe I got lucky.  One frame of brood/eggs, one frame of capped honey/pollen, three empty frames, and they built up fine.  One nuc even swarmed in the spring before I could move it to a hive (they came out as I removed the cover and I was immersed in a swarm that then moved into a nearby apple tree for easy recovery - it was a pretty cool experience).

I do not like the lack of room over the frames, which makes it hard to add pollen patties (have to really squish them down), and I have yet to find my favorite way to feed in the winter (have poured syrup through the entrance, but, considering what builds up on the floor, that's not very sanitary, at least to a human, have used dry sugar, this year will try division board feeders, but hate to open the lid mid-winter).  But, they do seem to keep the bees toasty warm and even small clusters can survive to boom in the spring.  I am trying them as swarm traps, too, with lemongrass EO, but had no luck last year.  They might be a bit too small, don't know.

Please keep in mind that I have only been experimenting/learning about nucs for about three years, so I don't have a track record.  My survivors might just be beginner's luck.  Sometimes, I think (am convinced) my bees survive in spite of my efforts, not because of them.

Bill
Claremont, NH - where the frost is on the apple blossoms, but the sky is bright blue and we are recovering from our late-winter snowy reminder that it is, after all, still April in northern New England.

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