I prefer to do nuc transfers into the receiving hive body in the evening, at dusk, just as the sun is going down. This minimizes flightiness and disorientation. The bees spend the night checking out their new space. The next morning they do some orientation flights, and then just get busy being bees doing bee stuff.
Mid-day transfers, in my experience, usually ends up with a lot of flying around, crawly bees, lost bees, clusters on the outside of the hive or on the ground, sometimes even a grand marching out of the entrance almost as quickly as they are being put in the top. Those are the extremes. By contrast evening transfers are always calm and smooth going, always all in and they stick to the box.
As for bees seen on the ground out front. Per iddee, 3 and 5.
IMHO, hope that helps.