I've now got an image of me running about the apiary throwing frames around in my head hahaha.
Heh... tis the stuff of dreams in the beginning.
/smiles/
In a nutshell..?... you select 4 frames in toto, not five, ALL covered
to 80% by bees.
*One with lots of brood at around 5days old and some eggs, a sprinkling.
*One with older capped brood, at least 60% of both sides of the frame.
*One with loads of pollen and a little honey, it can have mostly empty
brood cells.
*One with cells filled with honey, the top section(10% of frame) capped.
The capping is important as it can tell the new owner quickly if where
they put the nuc is suitable as to foraging strengths.
Method.
The stores go in first, then the brood, then the pollen frame.
We often add a new frame as the fifth, primarily only as a space filler
as over the years we have had buyers say "but it says 5frame nuc"... so
rather than argue that is the box size we just throw a frame in. It also
gives them something to enthuse over when they see bees putting wax
on during their first inspection.
That's the "commercial version"... for ourselves we use six frame nucs.
Help?
Bill