OK... Gotta make sure they had room so I took a full deep to swap with the nuc. It's a good thing, too. As I was unloading the car I noticed that some of the girls had figured out even another way in -- a big rotted knot 3-4 feet below the primary "tree entrance." This was minor compared to the other side but you don't want them to pass the word.
Stuffed the hole with wadded up newsprint and garbage bags. For good measure, I added a couple of drops of Bee-Go. That done, I took the nuc down to the ground and moved the five
full frames to the deep. They were drawing out the foundation nicely and there are two nice queen cells side by side on the frame I added with eggs 8 days ago. And, like the 15# swarm that went befor them, theses are wonderful and
gentle bees.
Although I worked fast, there were a few hundred hovering and confused by the time I carried the deep back up the ladder and got it onto the platform. And nobody liked the secondary entrance anymore. :)
An interesting observation... with the change in boxes, some of the girls lined up on the entrance and did the "fanning" thing (even without the new queen), I suppose to say, "It may
look different but it
is home."
Mike