Bursting nuc

[elainemary]

Fair enough.

Personally, when I sell a nuc, I would rather it was absolutely bursting with (emerged) bees (and brood of course), so I would tend towards leaving the emerged bees with the nuc. Unless it's just stupidly packed of course, which I doubt it would be by April.

Regarding the hive population at this time of year, in general I have found:

View attachment 30793

Very true! It's my first year overwintering double vs single nucs so will be a good learning experience...also conscious not to sell something that swarms the following week...memories of my time as a beginner when both my newly acquired nucs swarmed the week after. Can still recall the seller telling me proudly that his nucs were 'bursting with bees"