Hello, I’m new to this site!
I’ve noticed that bees fall to the ground or hit the ground and fly back up again. They are not dead but I’ve noticed it more from a beehive that has been having some issues.
Is this a normal phenomenon?
This is not a normal phenomenon. It’s best if you tell us what the issues are with the hive so we can help you to remedy that sooner rather than later.
cheers & welcome.
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Thank you for your reply. This hive was split and it had a queen. I purchased a nuc from this guy and he didn’t give us a good queen. The split was small. The queen had a spotty brood pattern and I’ve noticed some dead larvae. I assumed it was due to the lack of nurse bees to feed and cover the open brood. The queen lays eggs but worker bees seemed having hard time feeding and capping the brood. This qeen’s history is unknown. I purchased a nuc with this queen in it. She wasn’t laying any eggs until about 3 weeks later. The guy refunded the money anyways…
This is a short history of the hive. Now I noticed that bees that came out from the beehive were dropped down and fall to the ground and fly back on. I also noticed a drone bee that was outside of the hive on the ground. I am not sure if that drone was from that specific hive or not. However, I noticed his wings were deformed.
You need to do a Varroa mite count STAT, if you want to save the nucleus. Sugar roll or alcohol wash are the only accurate ones (search the forum or Google for instructions), unless you have vaporizing equipment for oxalic acid, in which case you can do an accelerated mite drop.
From your description, I bet that you have a heavily infested colony, which will need treatment and feeding if you are going to save it. 
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Hey Chyu84,
Oh dear, this doesn’t sound good - might be varroa indeed, definitely second Dawn’s advice.
We’ve got a little write up on it here
and if you search ‘varroa’ or ‘mite’ on the forum, as well as scroll through the Pests & Disease Management you’ll find lots of other recounts to inform you, too.
Please let us know how you go!
Crawlers and deformed wings are definate signs of disease.
Sounds like this nuc came with the issue but fixing it is more important 
just think twice about buying bees from that source again.
Fingers crossed for you saving this hive. Nothing I can add that hasn’t been said.
Test for varroa, establish the mite count treat accordingly to that count and volume of brood both worker and drone.
If you have capped brood I’d suggest something that gets into it MAQS is what I use. 7 day treatment and if your super is on it can stay on during the treatment as well (UK).
As its a short duration no need to test during but definitely need to after to see the mite drop.
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