Jerry,
I live in the Cadillac, Michigan area which is in the central lower 
Peninsula.  The packages were late packages from Georgia-mid to late 
April-and I attributed the failure to poorly mated queens.  Since the 
purchase was last minute and  late I had to take what I could get.  I am not 
certain as to where in Georgia the packages came from.  I picked up the 
packages from a beekeeper in Indiana who had brought them from Georgia. 
The packages were all Italians which was all that was available, but I 
prefer Carniolians so I purchased Carnie queens from a beekeeper in Florida, 
a Mr. Miksa.  They arrived on May 18 which was cold and rainy and our 
wonderful UPS delivery person left them outside in spite of the "Keep at 
Room Temperature" notations on the package.  I guess that is better than 
having them bake in a mail box.  I installed within 48 hours as I did not 
remove the old queens until the new queens arrived.  They were accepted 
without issue but the hives still dwindled.  One of the hives that I had 
expected to do well was full of brood at the end of July and had put up 2 
mediums of honey which I had intended to leave.

Hope this helps.

Coleene 

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