When to open made up “mixed up” nuc?

[tchu]

Due to emergency circumstances, I had to introduced a mated queen using a push in cage to a handful of bees (less than 50 bees) made queenless for about 5 hours, with plenty of stores & drawn combs, in a poly nuc. The following day (yesterday) I made queenless for 9.5 hours 2 capped brood frames & adherent bees from yet another colony. I then Introduced that into the poly nuc last night at 11:30pm - the frames and bees went peacefully into the nuc, no fight whatsoever as if they were always from the same colony. The two colonies were actually sort of clustering in their respective nucs, and when I opened them to unite them no bee attempted to fly, except for a dozen of them who were attracted to the lamp like moths. After watching them for a while I released the queen and she was straight away tended by them. Question, please: when can I open that nuc entrance? I want to make sure they are all impregnated with their new queen pheromone and come back to that nuc after go foraging because one of them came from a colony that is only 3 minutes drive away and another one (the one I got only less than 50 bees) came from a hive next door to where the nuc now is (about 1 metre away, and the nuc is facing a wall, 180 degrees opposite direction to the entrance of the nuc they came from 2 days ago and that hive is facing the opposite wall). Thanks in advance

 

[Markthebuilder]

My worry would be a lack of nurse bees if there isn’t any uncapped brood. I’m not sure locking them in makes a great deal of difference but others with moor exp will correct me.
I would open up. If they have plenty of stores to support until caped brood become foragers they should be ok. Any foragers now will either reorientate and come back or fly home.
Your nurse / house bees if any introduced with the capped brood will become foragers over the next couple of weeks and come back. Keep an eye on stores and give fondant if in doubt.
If you appear to lose a lot of the bees consider adding a frame with open brood and nurse bees

 

[tchu]

My worry would be a lack of nurse bees if there isn’t any uncapped brood. I’m not sure locking them in makes a great deal of difference but others with moor exp will correct me.
I would open up. If they have plenty of stores to support until caped brood become foragers they should be ok. Any foragers now will either reorientate and come back or fly home.
Your nurse / house bees if any introduced with the capped brood will become foragers over the next couple of weeks and come back. Keep an eye on stores and give fondant if in doubt.
If you appear to lose a lot of the bees consider adding a frame with open brood and nurse bees

Many thanks for replying! There should have been open brood as the mated queen had plenty of time to lay in empty cells whilst in the push in cage as the cage covers about a 1/3 of that side of the frame. I’ve opened the entrance last Friday - only 1 bee espace as this is a small colony with plenty of nectar in - and will check how her laying is going by Friday. All my hives are now 14x12 but sadly this nuc is a poly standard national so all my left over national frames that were still in my 14x12s were used up to create that nuc so can’t do any more frame transfer. That queen was given away by someone from my association who realised that after 3 weeks his queen was laying fertilised eggs but not sometimes 2 per cell so he wanted to get rid of her. I took the her because I thought I could always give my other colonies a capped brood bust if needs be, so the intention is, if that queen survives, to use that colony as some sort of support colony but I will need to unite it with another small nuc that I’m waiting to see if the queen has mated properly and survives my messed up wing clipping, or put that nuc on the site of a string colony to get a boost from its foragers (assuming that’s a good idea, but other members’ thoughts are welcome as I’m a beginner)

 

[Markthebuilder]

You seam to have as many dramas as me… I have taken a 2 week holiday and I am confident that in my absence all my bees will have sorted their various nucs and hives out and be best placed to deal with my next bout of interfering/ mite Controle/ honey extraction etc

 

[tchu]

You seam to have as many dramas as me… I have taken a 2 week holiday and I am confident that in my absence all my bees will have sorted their various nucs and hives out and be best placed to deal with my next bout of interfering/ mite Controle/ honey extraction etc

Lol, Mark!