OK, so a nuc' yard and a honey yard, and build it slow, debt free. Smart girl!
A total between 300 and 500 colonies allows you enough colonies to really grade and select from the best, and have enough resources to make the nucleus colonies. That will be a few years down the road, but to get an idea, here's what I'd go about getting for equipment.
I started out making a queen bank frame and a bunch of Henry Alley-type queen cages. They are the easiest to produce - just a 1.5" hole through a 2.25" x 2.25" x 3/4" block, screens stapled on to both ends of the hole, and a 7/16" hole drilled in from the side with a small cork to close it.
My queen bank frame holds 2 shelves with 2 rows each of 14 Alley cages. That's a temporary holding tank for 56 queens, a little bit bigger than a 48-cell queen cell frame. I put a screen of 1/2" hardware cloth over it so the cages don't fall out when handling them.
The screen hinges up to get the boxes out. The attendant bees can go right through the 1/2" mesh.
I consider robbing screens an absolute necessity of beekeeping. You go into winter with a lot more bees if you have them and use them.
I made a run of Laidlaw queen introduction cages. It's a wooden rectangle made of 7/8" square wood. The outside is 6" x 8", but you can adjust this so it fits in a bee box neatly if you wish. The top is covered with #8 hardware cloth, and to the inside perimeter is attached a strip of 1" sheet metal such that it protrudes 3/8" below the bottom of the wooden rectangle.
A flat section of comb is selected that has mostly empty cells an/or emerging brood, with a small patch of honey and pollen. The frame is brushed clear of bees, and the mated queen is placed under the Laidlaw cage, then the protruding metal strip is pushed into the comb until the the wood bottoms out against he comb.
There is no candy release in a Laidlaw cage, the beekeeper releases the queen when he/she sees there is no aggressive action - an attack "ball" - over the queen. When they are instead feeding the queen under the cage, the beekeeper releases the queen.
You'll probably have 3 kinds of nucleus boxes - small mating nuc's, 5-frame increaser nuc's, and waxed cardboard nuc's for sales. Many beekeepers use "queen castles" -4-way mating nuc's that fit in a standard box over a strong colony separated with a double screen board. Others think the odd-sized frames are a PITA, so they prefer 3 standard frames for mating nuc's. Your decision, ultimately.
I made a few Pritchard boxes for isolating breeder queens on 1 to 3 combs. They are there to make sure I know where to find exactly the right-aged larvae when it's queen rearing time. They are also portable, which is a help when I can grab it from the breeder colony, place it in an empty nuc', and leave it right outside the grafting tent (though I use it for Miller method, Jay Smith method, and Jenter box method as well as Doolittle's grafting method).
The Pritchard box has wooden ends and bottom, with queen excluder sides. It's wide enough for 3 frames and 4 bee spaces (4-1/2"), and hangs in a deep box. The frames are medium depth, but a bit shorter than standard. (The Pritchard box hangs like a regular frame, the frames hang in it). I make a top out of thin plywood and sheet metal that fits tightly. This is just a convenience, and only reduces panic when I can't find the right aged larvae.
Of course each colony will need a feeder, or perhaps more than one type. A Miller-type feeder works well in the warm months. Bucket feeders do better in the cold months. Liquid feed is not used during the freeze.
A Cloake Board may or may not make sense to you. With the insertion of a board, it changes from a queen excluder to a shut-off valve. Board in makes the upper box into a queenless starter. Pull it out the next day, its a queenright finisher. Queen rearing was never easier.
Feeder rims for patties are a convenience, you might elect to make them.
A super horse will save your back. It is a sawhorse with a rectangle top. The rectangle happens to be just wide enough for 2 or 3 supers. Make it just low enough that it helps, but so you can stack 2 or 3 supers high and still get them off again.
While moving from 10 up to 100 hives, a 6-frame, 12" tall, ventilated, queenless starter/finisher box is an awesome way to go. Just make 8 to 20 queen cells at a time (20 at the peak of the season, fewer early or later) every 11 days. The queen cells go into the nuc's for 22 days, then on into 5-framers. (Hint: at least 2 sets of 20 nuc's per queen box.)
still editing - kilo