Bee package mostly dead. What should I do?

[Dawn_SD]

I answered this on the other thread you started. This is not like Facebook, you shouldn’t need to post a question twice to get an answer

Here is the link. I suggest that anyone else who wants to answer goes to the first thread, to avoid confusion and dilution of information:

Bee package mostly dead. Queen and a few hundred bees still alive. What to do?

If you have a second empty hive, put the new package in there. If you don’t, I would put the new package in an empty lower brood box after checking that the queen is alive and well (they are usually caged, so that is easy). Put the new queen in with them. Kill the old package queen. Put the old package bees in a box on top of the new package, but with a double layer of newspaper between them. Leave some food in the old package box as a bribe to get the new bees up there and make them less likel…