Bees Finally Arrive!

I received my nuc of bees this morning at 8 am. Took the box and placed it on top of the hive. Opened the side flap for the bees to fly out. A few hours later about half a dozen of them were lying dead or dying on the hive stand/platform and ground. Lo and behold there was this bee on the ground recently dead, that attracted my attention. It was darker than the rest, had a slightly bigger and elongated abdomen than others. Furthermore, it had on its thorax a luminescent numbered paint spot ‘96’. Could this have been the queen now lying dead? I immediately contacted the supplier and since he was uncontactable, I left a message on his answer machine and also sent an e-mail with an attachment of the picture of the dead 'queen'.