last night i brought home the nuc that i'd left at a house where i did a removal. the hive was in a limb that had fallen.the hive was small, queenless, nearly broodless & had very little stored honey. when i opened the limb to remove the bees i saw 2 hive beetles. this morning i opened the hive where i had placed the comb that came out of the tree. it was loaded with beetles. when i opened the nuc there were a lot of beetles & beetle larva on the bottom board. i killed all the beetles & larva i found. since this hive is queenless i combined these bees with another stronger hive. in retropsect i'm thinking it might be a good idea to put these feral colonies in a seperate yard to keep from infesting my other colonies with pests.
I would bet money that the beetles smelled that queen less hive and ran in like a free buffet from right around your yard.
most of them were in the nuc that was left at the site of the removal. i guess beetles at both locations acted on the oppurtunities. for the few bees that were retrieved it was almost not worth the effort.