A nuc vs. package bees: A nuc is like a very small hive of only 5 frames that can be purchased to place in your own hive. The benefits are: 1) The queen is accepted and proven to be laying. 2) There are eggs and larva present. 3) Drawn comb has filled out a minimum of 5 frames. 4) When placed in your own hive a nuc is already established and fully functioning with all castes in working order. As a result there is no time wasted for hive build up.
Package bees: 1) The bees gathered to put in a package don’t necessarily come from the same mother hive. 2) The bees are randomly thrown together and you might not have all the castes. 3) The queen is not theirs so there is a lag time just waiting for them to accept her. 4) There is no comb so they bees are starting from scratch. 5) The package bees usually have to be fed so they may catch up to the season and the rest of the hives.
A nuc is used as temporary housing before it is sold. Some people use nucs to house small splits. I feel if you have to use a nuc to split then you are rushing the bees. Usually small swarms are ones that have been out in the wild for awhile and circumstances have dwindled their numbers. They do need to be placed in a nuc to generate heat for the brood and many times they are starving and need feeding.
Hopefully people are listening to us when we tell them to start their bee hives BEFORE they get the Flow Hive. They will get much needed experience before having to learn everything at once. If their hive is strong enough they could then make a split to move frames straight into the Flow HIve.