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OK, I'm a newbee and have been reading and studying like crazy to get set up for the spring, which is really always present where I am. :D I am seeing a lot of mention of people keeping several NUC's in their yard, even overwintering of them. So, my question is, what's up with that other than the obvious answer of having a spare queen ready to replace a lost one? :scratch:
Well, they don't always stay as nuc's. For me, I might have a nuc or two that I bought. Another one or two that were swarm catches. The rest would be splits. Eventually those nucs get combined or moved into whatever size equipment being used. If I have a colony that didn't get completely up to snuff in the summer, I'll overwinter that nuc. If I do late season splits for whatever reason, they may get overwintered. And, as you mentioned, you can have extra queens ready to go. Lot's of reasons!
I keep nucs and production hives in the same yard. Sometime it's just convenience. I used to keep nucs in all my yards but eventually got too big with too many nucs, so now I keep most of my nucs in dedicated nuc yards with 50-80 in each.
I do have 60 nucs in my cell building yard with 30 cell builders. That way the brood I need for boosting the cell builders is right there on the other side of the apiary. No driving necessary.
Cell building yard:
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps4d327f65.jpg
Dedicated nuc yard:
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...pscd94ad18.jpg
Lets not forget the "F" word... Fun. It is a lot of fun to develop these small colonies. I find that growing a colony: from following the queen mating, starting laying eggs, establishing a brood nest, overwintering, and then producing a honey crop is incredibly more satisfying than starting a package.
You could consider a nuc as spare parts...
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnucs.htm
OK, I'm getting to see the bigger picture now and can see how having several NUC's around for spare parts could be quite useful for rapid recovery from problems and losses. Thank all of you that replied, I'm learning a lot from this forum.
Or you can look at a nuc as being a queen with support staff.
So good to have any empty Nuc on hand in case your hive is giving to big and may swarm.
Extra ones can be sold to other beekeepers to pay for some of you're beekeeping.