I know there is likely to be many schools of thought on this so please feel free to provide your thoughts good or bad, I can't learn and make a choice without knowing as much as possible.
I will be starting with bees in the spring and have been thinking I would standardize on all medium 10 frame boxes. .... I started contacting a few nuc suppliers to ask about the availabilty of medium frame nucs, now I am hearing from them that all mediums aren't a good idea and I would like to hear other thoughts.....
Thank you!
I am a new bee too. Do not get too serious with any particular beekeeping ideas.
I was going to "standardize" my equipment from the start under an influence of some books and forums, but due to availability of starting stock (bees, nucs etc) I finished up with a few hives both deeps and mediums. I do not regret it, I am going to find out how it works for me. I did not make an investment of thousands of dollars, so whatever happen will be a enjoyable and learning experience.
If you want to start with nucs, there is limited availability of medium nucs, besides 5 frame deep nuc is a better deal than 5 frames medium nuc since it will contain more brood and bees, for the same price. Likely 5 frame mediums may be priced higher than 5 frame deeps due to limited availability.
From my perspective after 1 year experience of a newbee my take is this:
Why don't you try both sizes and find out what works best for you?
With only a few hives to start weather if you buy or make your own equipment what difference is going to make financially?
This "all standarized " equipment mantra came either from commercial beeks, or from the beeks who think they are a commercial beeks, but in real life they are not.
Commercial beeks handling hundreds or thousands hives need to "standarize" for obvious reasons, cutting cost and making profit or they are out of bee business.
A new hobby beek needs not to "standarize", from the get go, what the heck for???? He or she needs to learn, have fun, and find out what works best for particular situation, location, climate etc.
I run now 8 frames deeps, 8 frames mediums and I am seriously considering trying 3/4 (7 5/8 boxes).
Some commercial and I think smart beeks swear by them, they are a compromise between the 2 most popular sizes. If that works for me I am going to "standarize" with all 3/4 supers since they seem to be a perfect compromise/balance for both weight, size of broodnest, and easy extraction of honey.
I know, many will say this is an "odd" size, when you have to sell... etc bla bla bla.
Well I do not give a crap about "reselling value" since I am a hobby beek, I do not have to turn profit, I will likely never keep more than 10 hives anyway, and I keep my bees for personal enjoyment and some great tasting honey.
That's some ideas to consider for a new bee whatever they are worth.