Those styro nuc bodies sold by Betterbee, I believe, were originally developed by Canadian 
beekeeper Dave Tegert (sp?) in Alberta. Dave was showing them at Apimondia ‘99 in Vancouver.  
The original ones he used only had one vent hole in the front above the entrance.  If I’m 
remembering correctly, Dave said he trucked his bees south from Alberta and overwintered them 
in his nucs in British Columbia.  They were designed to be fed  syrup by simply pumping it into the 
front opening. Bees then comsumed the syrup that accumulated on the floor of the nuc.  I have 
one of those early models and did overwinter it a couple of years back as an experiment.   We’ve 
always been told that moisture in a hive in winter is deadly for bees, but those bees did come 
through the winter up here just a bit above the 60th parallel.  


Regards,
Dick Allen

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