>Is there any way around the 3 mile nuc removal? I was trying to do everything close to home.
Yes. I just put an extra shake of bees in the nuc and put them next door.
>@ Michael: in your link it talks about making them queenless. Would this be pinching the queen or removing to another location.
I hardly ever pinch a queen, especially if the object is to get more queens. I would put the frame of brood that has the queen on it with a frame of honey in a nuc box.
>If another location then where and how far away?
I have never made a nuc or a split and taken it anywhere else.
>re: setting up mating nucs - it says use two frames, 1 brood, 1 honey. How many bees are we putting in with those frames?
All of them. Plus an extra shake from another frame of brood.
>How far away do these nucs need to be from original hive?
Next door.
>P.S. Any harm to original hive by removing queen.
Using a queenless starter finisher, sets that hive back a lot actually.
> And do you re-introduce that same queen to the hive when everything is said and done?
Sometimes. Often, the first batch of queens, I break that hive up to make the mating nucs.