>I have gotten my SC foundation from Dadant today. I am setting up a new hive and plan to cut the SC foundation into starter strips for the deep brood box. This, of course, means that the bees who will arrive in a 5 frame large cell nuc, will make what I understand will be messy comb because they won't be regressed. And that's fine - I can live with not pretty comb.
Not true. It will be beautiful comb. The worker comb will just be about 5.1mm in size.
>Ordinarily I would wait until there is a need for more space to put on the next box.
That's what I'd do.
>First: Can a starter strip be fairly narrow - like an inch?
I make mine 3/4". I would NOT go over one inch.
>Second: Since the box above the deep will be a medium with empty frames and starter strips of SC, should I put it on at the same time as I install the bees in the deep?
You can. But in my experience (and Finsky's) they will build up faster in early spring with more limited space.
> My thought is that the bees will have to draw comb before they have brood in the second box and would giving it to them early help them or simply make the bees move straight up the middle of the two boxes?
It will just give them more space to patrol, heat, cool, etc. Other than that, it doesn't really matter.