My thoughts:  Too Much Tinkering.

Disturbed and queen marked on day four.
Disturbed and frames added on day five.
Plus how many other disturbances for feeding?

Gone on day sixish?

I think with mild weather, a moderate flow on, syrup feeding and those disturbances... the bees haven't looked at the hive as much more than a refuelling station.

Admittedly I don't have experience with package installation - we export them, but don't use them ourselves here in NZ.   But we do plenty of swarm handling.

Rule one:  put em in a box and don't touch em for a week.

If the brood frames weren't available when the hive was being put together, then they're better off without them than being disturbed to add them.  I don't mark queens as a rule, but if I wanted to mark them, I would not do it in an 'unstable' hive - ie, without a developed brood nest, sick, without a laying queen or with other destabilising factors.

regards

Deanna Corbett
Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

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