nucleus ventilation

[SixFooter]

I watched Hedgerow Pete's video on making nucs and I've produced a few National nucleus hives from 18mm and 12mm ply. I havent added any ventilation holes and I am not sure if I should. The nucleus hive my bees came in has a meshed ventilation hole opposite the entrance. Is this a good idea/not a good idea/waste of time?

New beek you see so have doubts about almost everything I do!

 

[RoofTops]

If the nuc the bees came in had a ventilation hole I guess it was needed as much as anything to keep the bees cool while they were shut in during transportation. I wouldn't bother with ventilating a wooden nuc although poly nucs in my experience can overheat when packed with bees and in full sun. The answer to this is to have a fairly large entrance or cut out part of the bottom and create a varroa floor.

Nucs need to be nice and warm inside so the bees can expand quickly. They will let you know if they overheat by hanging out the front in a bee-beard. So if it's a wooden nuc, I would close up any ventilating holes.