I would think that if you started a nuc in the fall you would have to feed to get enough bees to survive the winter.I know there are a lot of people that winter in nucs I guess to each his own but I won't put a nuc together after the 1 of Sept.
You will have a head start if you start in the Fall.
Like Grant mentioned, Spring there will be more demand and you might not even be able to find a nuc to buy.
And if you wait for package bees, you will miss the beginning of the flow unless it starts late in your area.
Assuming it builds to addequate size to overwinter - which isn't all that big in my area - a fall nuc is much more likely to be a productive hive next year than a spring nuc.
Overwintering nucs is a great idea because you'll have a queen available all winter long in case you need one. Last fall I placed a divider board in an 8 frame hive body and made up two four frame nucs on either side. I then placed it over a strong hive with a double screen bottom board in between to keep them warm.
I used these two nucs as hive boosters by removing brood frames to keep them from growing too fast and placing them in weaker hives to get them through winter. It worked out great.
It's not such a big deal in my climate but up in Oregon it would be a good idea to use the double screen bottom board for extra warmth through the winter.
Puppy, as an experiment we started a Nuc on 8/10 in a single deep box with a locally purchased mated queen.
Shortly, they are going to be placed in a divided 10 frame deep that has a second divided 10 frame deep on top.
When cold weather hits, we plan to winter them on top of one of our main hives.
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