Do I understand this correctly? Can I make a five frame nuc by taking 5 drawn frames and of that five have two frames frome another hive with nurse bees and some brood. Purchase a queen and start a small hive?
ajm
You can do many things with a nuc, but, if you're aiming for a small split, it seems to me like you have the idea. Give them a couple frames of brood, a frame or two with pollen and honey, a young queen or leave them to make their own, and the split should be on it's way to becoming a new colony in no time.
I would shake more bees into it. Some of them will return back to the original hive. You could also let them make a queen. In that scenario, I would take the original queen and the open brood and place her in the nuc. Leave a frame of eggs and let the stronger original hive make a new queen. Done right before a flow, you can increase your honey production and end up with a second hive.
anytime you are going to make a split with a nuc and let them raise a queen, of the 5 frame in the nuc you should have a frame of eggs and young larva, 2 frames of capped brood, and a frames of honey and pollen and at least a frame of foundation, shake plenty of bee's in the nuc, whether you have a flow going or not it is good to add a top feeder and feed 1-1 suyrup until the cells are capped so you will have good big healthy queens. workers need a flow or feed to make enough royal jelly for good queens. it is good to have a feeder on because most of the foragers will fly back to the big hive and it might take a day or 2 for the nuc to get some foraging going.
All this advice is good if you want more go to Michael Bush's site and read about the differnt splits you can do
kirko