I'm not sure what to do....

[Honeycomb]

Yesterday I combined two hives that were just a few feet away from eachother. I put a five frame nuc where one of those hives originally was, thinking that if bees went back to that spot I could just take the nuc and dump them into the combined hives. I am not so sure that was the best strategy now. It seems like so many of them are coming back to the nuc. Also, I put the original hive that was there on the bottom of the combine, so if I tried to dump it in the top it would be the wrong hive. Should I dump them at the bottom entrance? At what point would those bees not be accepted anymore?

[fish_stix]

Just dump them out on the ground in front of the hive and remove the nuc.

[kwest]

im not 100% sure but i also think that the oringinal hive that stayed in its location should have been left on the bottom it should not have moved and the hive that was moved on the combine should be on the top. as long as you are using bottom board entrances.

[Honeycomb]

Ugh I think you are right about putting the new hive on top. The reason why I put it on the bottom was because it had a queen while the other did not and I didn't want to put the queen with brood on the top. I'm really irritated with myself about the whole thing. I had to leave town for Christmas and noticed on my way out that the bees on the bottom were pushing away others trying to get in. I put a smaller entrance above the newspaper, but it doesn't look like it's getting much use. I feel like I really messed up!