whats the minimum amount of bees and queen a colony can survive?

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Hi peoples,

What's the minimum amount of bee's that can get a colony going?

Let me explain further, I bought 2 bee packages but when I picked them up %95 of the bees were dead, the queen was alive thou along with a handful of bees. (long story but the bees were in transit for far too long when I picked them up from the seller, I got my money back sad for the bees thou..)

My other hives are over an hour away and I am busy with work so I unable to get some bees and brood from other hives to help boost them up.

I placed the around 500-1000 bees along with the queen in a nuc box, I gave them a frame feeder full of sugar syrup and some feederbee patties for protein.

My question out of interest will this limited number of bees start up a colony or will they dwindle off and day?

The cold weather has not been on my side though..18.c during the day in Melbourne..

Ben

[Hemlock]

I've nursed a handful of bees through Winter so a thousand should be doable now that it's Spring.  Keep them warm, fed, and properly bee spaced for now.  They can grow to be a full hive before Winter returns.  Add brood frames now too.  Any drawn frames you give them will also help out.

[Shanevrr]

depends on where you live, climate, and time of year,  but ive heard colonys can get started with less than 100 bees.  I had a nuc going with less than 200 until they got robbed and killed queen