""I'd usually give them a few days to a week to settle in to their new surroundings and the stress from transporting them home etc before any transfer.""
Yep, and upset them again for a few days when at their weakest.........
""As for when to transfer them into a full size hive I would wait until they are strong in numbers and covering most if not all of the 5 frames then do the change over on a warm day with good weather.""
If they are not already there, leave them at the breeders and find a new source for bees,
Sooooo many new bees have forgotten the excluder during a dearth, IE: winter, and when the bees move up to the honey stores, the queen stays below and perishes, right when it is hardest to replace her. It is best to have a couple or 3 years experience before using them.
Our winter conditions are in no way comparable to North America, probably why almost none of your management practices work here, and why ours don't work there.
Here in Sydney the coldest it gets is about 3 degrees C at dawn (avg 7-8C, with the coldest daytime temp of maybe 10 C on a windy day, the average is about 17-18 C, there's always something in flower year round apart from extreme drought periods, my bees never go broodless and even if I left my QX on over winter (a lot of others do) I highly doubt it would kill the queen as our bees scarcely (if ever) need to move up.
Yeah or just follow the advice from most of our state based Primary Industries Departments that has worked here in Australia for decades where we have a lot less beekeeping problems than the rest of the world.
Problems are like viruses. They move around the world at different times. Your time will come. I am sure the forest fires didn't help the bees.
Pretty sure were way ahead of you guys in terms of virus control and flattening curves, just like keeping Varroa & tracheal mites out, gun control, a healthcare system that doesn't leave you bankrupt etc etc.
The bush fires did decimate large areas and has made it hard on some beekeepers particularly in Queensland but the drought isn't helping either although we are getting decent rain again in some areas.