In this state, package bees are no longer recommended. Queen problems for some, with the colony absconding. There's typically a shortage of packages overall and some provisioners are putting in queens that are unmated or poorly mated, hence the colony absconds in a week or so. In some areas of this state, nearly 10% of packages absconded.

Of course, it depends on vendor.

Also, many package suppliers are hyperdosing with miticides to make their bees appear clean. In fact, such hyperdosing causes fertility problems with queens and drones.

Finally, packages are responsible to porting Small Hive Beetle across the country. Even outfits like Walter Kelley send in packages last year to this state that were assured to be clean and contained SHB.

A strong trend towards nucleus and splitting colonies is gaining here. And the earlier this becomes a primary way to get bees, the better.

In a nucleus, you can actually see the laying pattern of the queen. There's no preciptous population drop as there are with packages. Plus the workers and the queen are related... something that's never true with packages.