I found two local places where I can pick up a nuc. This is what they are advertising.
Both are 5 frame
One has:
2 brood
1 honey and pollen
1-2 foundation being drawn
enough bees to cover 3-4 frames
The other:
2 brood
2 honey & pollen
1 empty - being worked
Given a choice, which is the better option?
The second one. The bees will have 3 empty frames to work on in your hive, so the more work they already have done, the better.
That what I thought. Iām going to place my order today.
This Apiary has a combination of Italian/Russian/Carniolan in the nuc. Is it worth getting a marked Queen?
Yes get her marked. So much easier to spot her as a beginner
PS
You say there is a mixture of bees so the nuc is not made up from the queenās brood. Itās just made up and a caged queen put in?
let me find out. Thanks for your guidance
The good news is - itās the queens brood and she is not caged. I guess they would take her out to mark her.
I think it is much easier for new beekeepers if the queen is marked. If she isnāt, you can buy a special pen from beekeeping supply stores and with the help of an experienced beekeeper, find her and mark her yourself.
Where in the world are you? Chilly north east doesnāt really tell usā¦ If you are in the US, you can buy your own marked queen from a less mongrel stock than Italian/Russian/Carniolan mix for about $25 to $30. You may want to do that if your mixed breed bees turn out to be feisty - they often are!
Iām outside of Rochester New York
OK, thanks. You have lots of choice of queen suppliers then, if you need a replacement. Many supply marked queens at no extra charge. In your region, I would go for Russian or Carniolan. Carnies will need vigilant swarm prevention once established, but they are probably slightly gentler than Russians, mostlyā¦ 
I have had 2 Italian queens from this supplier, and they were excellent. They also have Carnies:
I thought having a mix of breeds may be a good thing. Sounds like you donāt agree. I just placed my order. Should I cancel? Looked at the site you sent. Iāll save it - just in case.
I wouldnāt cancel it. Try them out. But any mixed breed can be unpredictable, as any long-time beekeeper can tell you from personal experience! 
If you donāt like the way they treat you, you can always requeen any time from March to late summer.
I usually recommend new beekeepers get reliable, gentle bees, as it can be very off-putting handling a āhotā hive. I hate to see beginners give up, just because their bees are bad-tempered. You donāt have to tolerate it, if you donāt like it, just requeen and in 3 to 6 weeks, you will see a big difference in your hive without replacing all of the bees or destroying them.
I once had a mongrel hive or three with incredibly aggressive bees. On opening each hive I would get black rain on my veil - hard to see for a few minutes. When I had finished, I would see dozens of stingers lodged in my bee suit. The bees would chase me more than 100 feet from the hive. They find any little gap in a zipper, tear in a veil or place where the netting happens to touch skin. Not much fun. Needless to say, I requeened. I could have handled it, but it wasnāt necessary, and it was kinder to the neighbors to change the queen. The new brood were superbly gentle and productive, so it was the right thing to do.
Wow - Iām really hoping for a peaceful start. That doesnāt sound like much fun.
Registered for classes
Bees ordered
Flow hive put together - not painted yet
I think Iām in good shapeā¦lol
What nextā¦?
Mixed breeds are fine. Most likely, they are all mixed anyway regardless of what the supplier tells you. When a queen goes out to mate, she can mate with 40 drones. No one can prove what race of drones sheās mating with.
Good to know. I was getting worried I already made a bad choice, and I havenāt done anything yet.
You might want to talk to the nuc provider. Ask some questions like when did they make them up? Where did the bees come from? etc. A local overwintered nuc is worth more. An imported established nuc is a little less. Some people in recent years have put packages in a nuc box with some drawn comb and foundation and called that a nucā¦ but itās really just a recently installed packageā¦ A little discussion might clarify things.
The provider said the bees had been together a few months, with the queen. So by the time I get them in May, they would have overwintered at least once, if I understand the process. I didnāt ask where they came from.
A commercial nuc provider will have started your nuc earlier this year so they will be in their first winter right now.
You will probably want to do your research on exactly where to locate your girls so they have a reasonably sheltered spot for their hive and will not annoy you or your neighbours with their flight paths.
When you set them up you will want to leave the Flow Frame box off until your colony is well established.
I would recommend reading books while you wait. Michael Bush has several that are very good. http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm I have also read the backyard beekeeper, Beekeeping for dummies, better queens, NICOT queen rearing, and read pretty much every post on this forum since I joined. One thing you will soon see and read is that there are a lot of ways to do something. Pick the best method that works for you. There are other forums out there. I will say that this one is very helpful not that others arenāt but you have to deal with more unpleasant people more often on the other forums.
Thank you. Iāve been reading everything I can. Canāt wait to get to get my hands dirty. So far, everyone had been super helpful and pleasant. There are a zillion questions I donāt even know to ask.