Order queens and all the attendant bees are dead

[hoxbar]

I ordered some queen from a reputable source and all the attendant bees in the queen cages are dead.  Some of my queen were alive some were dead.  I contacted my source for the queens and he will be sending me my complete order for free!  I have no complaints with the guy I ordered the queens from at all.
He told to to go ahead and install the queens that are alive even though the attendant bees are dead.  He said they might make it.   Has anyone ever had queens survive and the attendants be dead?  Will the other bees feed her from outside the cage?

[iddee]

""Will the other bees feed her from outside the cage?""

YES

I can't answer the rest.

[Joe D]

I caught a swarm 5 weeks ago, put them in a tbh, checked in a couple of weeks they were building comb.  Checked again in 4th week still building, but no brood.  I saw a friend that raises queens, got 1 brought her home.  Put her aat the enterance of the hive for a few minutes, the bees paid her no attention.  Gave another puff, open the hive, and held her inbetween 2 frames of comb for a few minutes.  The open queen cage,let her out. Checked tuesday she was laying on a couple of frames.  There were no attendents, the hive didn't attack her, and now she's their queen.  Good luck with your bees.

Joe