Re-housing wild colony now

[Suzi Q]

Have you a reason to inspect? Better be a good one! There's frost on my car at the mo.

 

[itma]

I think you should inspect the compost bin, to ensure that it has been fully vacated.
If there is any more stores or comb to be salvaged from there, doing it while the bees are NOT flying would be easiest.


Personally (its not a wholly orthodox opinion), I find that the bees are hardly aware of being peered at through a clear coversheet, and that doing so is thus pretty harmless. Sure it will let a little warmth out, but not much, really. A torch helps to see whether (and where) they might be clustered and whether the comb looks empty (or in this case collapsed).

I'm not sure whether you are using a clear coversheet, a feeder or extra insulation - so I can't offer an answer to your question directly.

As Suzi Q says, you need a better reason than curiosity to expose the colony to the cold air.
Apart from keeping this lot fed through the winter, (and maybe an Oxalic treatment), I'm not sure that you should be planning to do ANYTHING else inside their box until Spring.
With food, they can try and sort out whatever mess of a nest they have - and in detail better than you can. You can do major stuff, like removing an empty frame and replacing it with a frame of stores - but let them do the tidying up and bracing together of the bits of their old home.

 

[VEG]

You have done all you can inside the nuc box. Just make sure they have stores if not access to some.