>Last week I bought a nuc only to find it dead when I opened it up.
>Since I learned a long time ago that smart pills were expensive, I want to
>report this experience to you so that you don't have to learn the hard
>way.

Apparently, this new technology was sold without the necessary auxillary
equipment for moving -- top screens -- and without instructions.

In Alberta, where this type of nuc has been used for over ten years, I have
never heard of any problems, other than that they plug up fast if the
beginning split is too large, and don't winter if the bees have shut the
queen down early for that reason.  They are designed for small splits -- one
or two frames, not 5 frames of bees and brood.

Moisture and heat have not been problems here.  The hole is a good enough
size for a hive sitting almost anywhere in full sun.  The volume is not far
off the volume that studies have shown bees to choose when they have a
choice, and the entrance hole is close to that chosen size too.

The problem comes when the nucs are overfilled and transported without
screens.  No one here would dream of moving them without screened lids.  In
fact, even when stored inside, the beekeepers screen them and plug the hole.
 Interestingly, I posted pictures illustrating this very fact several days
before reports started coming in from new users experiencing meltdown. See
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/articles/pkgnucs.htm

Even a large, well insulated hive can breathe through a 1" hole without
problem, except in extreme heat.  See the picture at the bottom of http:
//www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/ today.

These nucs are tight, and when the nuc is overfilled and the bees get
disorganised -- as they do when moved on trucks -- their normally well
co-ordinated ventilation activities break down.  Once panic sets in, heat
avalanches, and colony death can follow shortly.

Bees are killed -- overheated -- every year in wooden nucs and packages, but
people are used to that, so it is not news. These nucs work, and work well,
but, as with everything, there is a learning curve.

allen

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