Mike...Randy may chime in here, but I believe he observed a suppression of brood production in colonies treated with OA dribble.

A strong colony can take that in stride, but a package is a fragile thing. A package has no brood, and there will be no new bees coming along for 21 days after the package draws enough comb for HRH to lay in and start the production line. And packages these days are often smaller than in days of yore...so more fragile than ever.

So until those first bees emerge, the package population is falling as the older bees expire.

For that reason I would be very reluctant to do anything to the nascent colony that would slow its rate of regeneration via new baby bees. Or anything that would increase their stress level, as they have been shaken, requeened, shipped and installed.

I would accept that your package probably came with mites, a situation you will address going forward, but make supporting a strong brood-up your primary concern until you have the first round or two of brood emerged. That might be: feeding 1:1 syrup, pollen sub, providing foundation brushed with extra wax to promote rapid comb building, putting a batt of insulation over the inner cover to keep the small colony warm enough to brood at max rate for their size. Especially if this is your only colony....give it some TLC.

My two bits!

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