RDY-B,
Actually, curiosity mostly. I am going to make up nucs this spring by purchasing frames of brood/bees from a local commercial beekeeper and then ordering queens separately (to arrive around the time I get frames). For what I am budgeted to spend, I can make up five 3-frame nucs (which I would prefer), or three stronger 5-frame nucs.
Since the 'standard' size for starting out a colony is a 3lb package, I was curious to know how the different sized nucs would compare (that is, does making more, 3 frame nucs have a significant disadvantage in terms of numbers of bees as compared to the standard 3lb package - or should I be safe and do all 5 frame nucs).
Mike