Well, it's a done-deal. I sorted through the 10 frames, pulled out the 4 original frames with blank foundation and 2 of the frames from the original(5 frame) NUC they came in which contained, at most, some honey and pollen and put the 4 best-looking frames containing brood, honey, and pollen in my 4-frame NUC.. this included the frame of capped brood I put in yesterday.
There was a lot more mummies on the SBB that had yet to be hauled outside- a few dozen anyways. I really didn't want to take the time to closely examine the frames, I wanted to get the move over and the lid back on as quickly as possible. These bees have been through an awful lot in the past week...
There is a contented humming sound coming from the box and a few bees were, for a while, ventilating at the entrance.
I did NOT see the queen during this move, though I found her when I first installed the NUC a few days ago. I looked this time, but she eluded me. I brushed all the bees I could into the NUC. When I was done, I didn't see her squished on the bottom board or flopping around on the ground. I can only assume she was hiding and made it into the NUC OK. Time will tell. I guess I'll go read up on how a queenless stressed out and weakened colony behaves.
Guess I'll go make an entrance reducer for the NUC. Thanks again, all of you, for the advice- I feel like this was the right thing to do.
I'll keep you posted.
George-