Lesson 26: Package Bees

Receiving a package, caring for it, and installing it in your hive

A package is the most common way to start. The box holds about 3 pounds of workers (roughly 10,000–12,000 bees), a mated queen in a small cage, and a can of sugar syrup that fed the bees on the way. Installing a package takes about 15 minutes once you're ready, but getting ready matters more than the installation itself.

Before the bees arrive

Have everything set up in the bee yard before pickup day:

• the hive on its stand: bottom board, one brood box with frames (drawn comb if you have it, foundation if not), inner cover and lid (lesson 17);
• an entrance reducer;
• a feeder and a gallon or more of 1:1 sugar syrup (1 part sugar to 1 part water; lesson 39);
• a spray bottle of 1:1 syrup;
• veil, hive tool, and a smoker lit just in case (package bees usually aren't defensive).

When the package arrives

• Check it over. Look for tears in the screen and make sure the bees are alive. About an inch of dead bees on the bottom is normal. A lot more can mean they overheated in shipping, so contact your supplier.
• Keep it cool, dark and quiet, out of sun, heat, noise and vibration. Temperature matters a lot:
• Above about 100°F, workers and the queen can die.
• Below about 55°F, the bees survive but chilling can kill the sperm the queen has stored, and she'll fail early (lesson 44).
• Spray the bees lightly with 1:1 syrup through the screen a few times a day. Don't soak or drown them.
• Install as soon as you can, ideally the day you get them. Survival is best within a day or two.

When to install: Many guides suggest late afternoon or early evening. The bees settle in overnight instead of flying off or drifting to a neighboring hive. North Carolina State Extension advises installing only when it's warmer than about 65°F.

Installing the package, step by step

1. Reduce the entrance (a wooden reducer or a wad of grass the bees will remove themselves). Don't block it completely.
2. Make room. Take 3 to 5 frames out of the middle of the brood box.
3. Spray the bees with syrup again. Wet bees fly less and are easy to pour.
4. Open the package. Pry off the wooden lid, lift out the syrup can and the queen cage, and put the lid back over the hole right away.
5. Check the queen. Make sure she's alive, and keep her cage in the shade.
6. Prepare the queen cage. Her cage has a cork at each end; one end is filled with white candy. Remove the cork from the candy end only. (Never remove the other cork, or she'll walk straight out.) The workers will eat through the candy and release her in a day or two, which gives them time to get used to her scent.
7. Hang the cage between two center frames, screen facing out where workers can reach it. Make sure it's wedged securely so it can't fall to the bottom. (Guides differ on the exact position: candy end up, or the cage lying on its side on a top bar. What matters is that the candy is reachable and the queen isn't blocked in by dead bees.)
8. Knock the package firmly on the ground once so the bees fall to the bottom.
9. Pour and shake the bees into the space you made, right on top of the queen cage area. Shake firmly. It may take a few shakes. Lots of bees in the air is normal; they're confused, not angry.
10. Set the package by the entrance so stragglers can walk in.
11. Gently put the frames back as the bees spread out, without crushing bees.
12. Feed, cover and leave them. Put on the feeder, inner cover and lid.

After installation

• Feed continuously until the colony has built comb and natural nectar is coming in. Packages start with no comb and no food, and bees need a lot of sugar to make wax. If they're slow to build comb: feed, feed, feed. Even well fed, it can take weeks to draw ten frames.
• Check that the queen is out after a few days (guides say anywhere from 2 to 5 days). If she's still caged, remove the cork or screen and let her walk down between the frames. If workers are clinging to and biting the cage, they aren't ready to accept her yet. Leave her caged a bit longer (lesson 46).
• About a week later, look for eggs (small grains of rice standing in cells) and young larvae. Eggs mean she's laying. No eggs a week after her release may mean the queen is dead or failing, and she must be replaced right away (lesson 46).

Lesson 30 covers the first weeks in more detail.

What to remember

• Set everything up before pickup; install as soon as possible.
• Keep packages cool (not cold), dark and quiet; overheating kills, chilling damages the queen.
• Remove only the candy-end cork; hang the cage securely between center frames.
• Feed continuously; check the queen is released in a few days, and look for eggs a week later.

Quick check

1. Why remove only the cork from the candy end of the queen cage?
2. What can happen to a queen if the package gets too cold?
3. A week after the queen was released you find no eggs. What does that suggest?

Adapted from: NC State Extension, How to Install a Package of Honey Bees (Tarpy; rev. 2024); UGA Bee Program, Getting Started: Installing Packaged Bees; Penn State Extension, Installing Packaged Bees; Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Establishing a Honey Bee Colony (2024); Mississippi State University Extension, Beginning Beekeeping in Mississippi (P3594); Purdue Extension, Advanced Beekeeping (4-H-1059-W).

Adapted from university Extension sources. Experienced Georgia beekeepers are reviewing these lessons. See something that doesn't match your experience? Tell us.