Thanks, Bob, great points!
Let me add some more:

Bob's point about using singles rather than nuc boxes to avoid the labor of
later transferring is a good one if you're making a lot of nucs.  I
mentioned that we've been experimenting with various ways of using a
division board to make up our nucs in singles.  One aspect of this method
that impresses me is the amount of time saved when going from a nuc to a
single--you can often save a step.

Saving steps is everything in commercial (as Bob keeps pointing out).  When
we transfer 5-frame nucs, we pick up two outside frames together to move,
then pick up the next three together.  You get a chance to look at a center
brood frame that way to check for laying pattern and disease, but you've
only split the nuc in one place.  Less queen loss, since you are only
placing frames back together at on place.  Also much faster!

I still love my old 5-frame nuc boxes.  They are a very easy unit to load up
by hand, move to outyards, then make up into singles on site.  We make them
up with only four frames, then add the fifth two weeks later when we check
for queen mate out.  The fifth frame comes from unmated nucs.

Another point is, as Bob noted, is  that there is a world of difference
between starting on foundation, or starting on drawn comb.

We also mark the donor colony on nucs as Bob does, but only if she is a
potential breeder that we missed.  The "up through an excluder" method of
getting queen-free young bees that Bob mentioned works great, but I don't
often use, since it requires a second trip to the outyard.  I have used that
method also by taking shook frames of brood and honey, making up
side-by-side nucs in a single with a divider, then placing the double nuc
single over an excluder of a third colony to pick up bees (steal brood from
some colonies, bees from others).  My buddy Keith Jarret uses a similar
method in January to split his huge colonies before almonds!

However, we don't often use the above, since we practice "yard trashing," in
which all strong colonies are broken down into nucs.  We generally get a
honey crop off those nucs, or at least draw out a deep super of foundation
and fill it with honey above them.  Yard trashing is extremely fast--two of
us easily produce a nuc a minute until the truck is full.

Again, location is everything.  Mike Palmer/Kirk Webster make small nucs
late in the season to overwinter.  I really like this idea--probably the
best method in general.  However, in Calif we don't have any late
nectar/pollen flow.  There are also issues with whether you can take those
nucs into almonds.

Last point is that splitting can be an effective method to help manage
varroa.  The break in brood cycle really sets back the mite population.

Randy Oliver

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