I didn’t know this when I installed my first package of bees, and things went horribly wrong.
You should wait at least a week before checking on the bees after you install your package.
I was too excited.
I just couldn’t help myself.
I wanted to see how they were doing.
I opened up the hive and saw the worst thing you could possibly see in a package hive.
The queen was dead.
She was already dead on arrival when I installed the package, and I didn’t even realize it until I opened up the hive.
Of course, they’d not been able to start making their own queen yet, so they were already doomed.
I learned my lesson. The hard way.
The Problem
If you check on your bees before a week has passed, there’s a good chance that you’ll squish the queen.
The queen will be trying to get out of the cage that she came in, and if you accidentally kill her during an inspection, you’re in for a bad time.
The other thing is that the bees need time to start making their own queen if the one that came with the package is dead on arrival.
If you introduce the package to the hive, and then check them a week later, you’ll be able to tell if the queen that came with the package is alive or not.
If she’s not, then you’ll be able to buy and introduce a new queen without a problem.
If the queen that came with the package is still alive, and there’s a new queen too, the bees will kill the new queen and keep the original.
The Solution
You should just let them be for a week, and then check them.
If you do find that the original queen is already dead on arrival, there’s a couple of different things you can do.
The first thing you can do is to introduce a new queen to the hive.
You’ll need to order a new queen and get her delivered as soon as possible, because the bees won’t be able to make a new queen if the original one that came with the package is dead.
The other thing you can do is to return the package, and get a new one.
If you’re going to do this, then you’ll need to wait until the next day to return the package. You need to do it before they all start to die.
You’ll also need to get your new package as soon as possible, because the bees won’t be able to make a new queen if the original one that came with the package is dead.
The bees will just die off if they don’t have a queen.
What You Should Do
The best thing you can do is to just be patient.
Let the bees have their weak to get settled in, and then have a look on the seventh day.