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Nucs, or Nucleus Colonies, are small honey bee colonies created from larger colonies. The term refers both to the smaller size box and the colony of honeybees within it. The name is derived from the fact that a nuc hive is centered around a queen, the nucleus of the honey bee colony.

Layout

A nuc hive has all the features of a standard 10 frame Langstroth hive except with a reduced width. The link shows a USDA lay out for building a nuc.

Nuc Creation

When using a Langstroth hive, a nuc is created by pulling two to five frames from an existing colony. These frames, and the nurse bees clinging to them, form the basis for the nuc colony. The nuc box, also called a nuc, is a smaller verson of a normal beehive, designed to hold fewer frames. The nuc box is smaller because it contains a smaller number of honeybees, and a smaller space makes it easier for the bees to control the temperature of the colony, which is vital for brood rearing.

A nuc may or may not be given a queen at the time it is created. If the nuc does not contain a queen or queen-cell, but does contain eggs, the workers will create an new queen from one of the eggs. If the nuc is to be given a new queen, the queen will be introduced to the colony in her queen cage either at the time the nuc is split from the main colony, or within a few days. Nucs are often used to prevent swarming, by pulling frames with queen-cells and using them to provide the basis for a new colony.

Care and feeding

A Nuc is extremely vulnerable, as it possesses in some cases less than a tenth of the workers that a normal colony contains. Nucs are almost always fed using a boardman feeder or frame feeder. Feeding allows the worker bees to remain in the nuc, acting as nurse bees for developing brood. Because of their small population, Nucs are vulnerable to robbing, in which a stronger hive steals all the nectar, honey, or syrup from a weaker hive. Robbing can lead to starvation in days.

Uses

A nucleus colony can be used to prevent overcrowding in a larger, healthy colony by splitting some of the population off to a new colony. A nuc can also be used to care for spare queens. The loss of a queen in a large colony can set the colony back by up to a month. A nucleus colony can be combined with the larger colony to re-queen it with a much smaller break in brood rearing. A nuc can also grow into a full sized colony, given proper time, favorable weather, and appropriate resources.

The term nuc and the term split are not strictly interchangeable. While a nuc may have a number of different uses, a split more often refers to dividing a colony for the purposes of growing both back to a full sized colony. A nuc is not normally intended for overwintering, as nuc colonies do not posses the strength to survive winter in harsher climates. Beekeepers often combine nucs together in the fall to produce a single, strong colony. This results in the loss of all but one queen, but provides a colony capable of surviving winter. In warm climates, nucs can overwinter. Nucs can also survive winter indoors, or in an observation hive.

Mating nucs

Mating nucs are a special types of nucs that may be even smaller than the nucs using regular size frames. They are sometimes called mini-mating nucs. Mating nucs are used in a queen mating yard. A capped queen cell is put into a mating nuc together with a sufficient number of attendant worker bees. When the virgin queen emerges she flies out mates with up to 20 drones and returns to the mating nuc. When mating is successful a nice brood pattern can be seen on the frames of the mating nuc. Queen breeders raise thousands of queens in this fashion. Successfully mated queens are caged and shipped to be used as production queens by beekeepers.

• Beekeeping