I received a bee package yesterday and over 90% of the bees were dead. I did get the remaining live bees into the new hive and free released the queen who was also alive. I have a pollen patty and sugar water in the hive. Today, I opened the hive and the few bees are either clung on the bottom board around the sugar feeders or on the pollen patty. I spotted the queen on the pollen patty(see picture), but no foraging or workers leaving the hive. No comb started. I got a refund from the bee supplier. I hope to get another package, but should I and if I do what do I do with the current queen and the few hundred bees around her? Should I not get a new package and see if this small population can survive?
If you have a second empty hive, put the new package in there.
If you don’t, I would put the new package in an empty lower brood box after checking that the queen is alive and well (they are usually caged, so that is easy). Put the new queen in with them. Kill the old package queen. Put the old package bees in a box on top of the new package, but with a double layer of newspaper between them. Leave some food in the old package box as a bribe to get the new bees up there and make them less likely to fight the old package.
As soon as they have merged (2-5 days), condense them back down to one box and feed as necessary while they get established.
Sorry that beekeeping can be complicated, but that is life sometimes! 
1 Like
Another thought for you. Your profile shows that you have 2 hives. If either of those are strong, and could need splitting, you could take a frame or 2 of mostly capped brood and donate it to the package hive. The newly emerging bees will quickly bolster the package population and help them survive. Don’t transfer the queen, but transferring some nurse bees on the brood frames would help too. Nurse bees generally don’t fight with bees from another hive, especially if there is food in the hive.
That’s not a bad idea. I currently have one very strong hive that is going gang busters. I was actually worried that it might swarm. I already have 2 full supers of honey and it is only April. The new package was going to replace my 2nd hive which I lost over the winter.
If I do go this route, when I pull out a frame full of brood and it is covered with bees, do I assume all the bees on the frame are nurse bees? Do I only transfer a certain number of bees with the brood frame?
1 Like
Good questions. I usually give the frame a couple of gentle shakes (over the open donor hive) to thin out the bees a bit. That way it is also easier to inspect the frame to make sure the queen is not on the frame you are transferring. The bees left on the frame will be mostly nurse bees, as the majority of foragers will let go and fly off with the first shake. The exact number of bees doesn’t really matter, but I would say about 1/3 of the frame covered with nurse bees is usually good. Then you should have enough bees to keep the capped brood warm until they emerge. Don’t forget to feed though. Each frame could produce as many as 3-4,000 bees, and they will take a few weeks to mature into foragers. If your strong hive can spare a frame of honey, so much the better!
1 Like