I blew it, or learning from one's mistakes

Over the past couple of days there has been increasing activity of scout bees around the bait box.  They have been spending several minutes going in and out and staying inside for several minutes.  This increasing interest is encouraging.  They are at least considering my nuc as a new home.



I have been episodically checking the swarm in Paul's yard to make sure they had not gone somewhere else.



So, today, I heard buzzing in the yard, and there they were!



Just as a swarm from the hive settles into a cluster, these bees in a few minutes had settled at the entrance of their new home.

After just a few minutes they were all inside except for those at the entrance fanning their Nasonov pheromones into the air.

 

This is when, out of ignorance and inexperience made a big mistake.  I was only doing my best!

I wanted to put frames into the box before they started building comb.  I had already selected the frames to use and had painted the foundations with melted beeswax in preparation.

I climbed onto the table and lifted the lid of the nuc box.

As you can see, a lot of the bees were hanging from the top.  I had no way to set the lid down out of the way so I could but the frames in, so I gave the lid a little shake so the bees would drop into the box, which they did.  I then began putting in the frames.
Whilst doing so, I saw more and more bees flying around in front of the box.  I wondered for a short while and then realized they were swarming again, leaving the box!  I guess that is expected bee behavior;  do not stay in a new home that is frequently invaded by bears!

As I berated  myself for my poor judgement, the swarm flew across the yard and clustered in the magnolia tree.

I removed the frames from the briefly inhabited box.

Empty once again

Perhaps the scouts will not remember their traumatic experience and once again lead their mother and sisters back to my nuc.  (There were still several scouts examining the box later and I could see bees flying back and forth from the cluster to the nuc.)
I got a photo of a bee thief sitting on one of the rose stakes waiting to snatch a morsel.