24 A Modern Bee-Farm 
Uniting Queenless Bees. 
By uniting after three days from the removal of one 
queen, the operation is usually perfectly safe and satis- 
factory, while if both colonies had been queenless prior 
to uniting,* the merest novice will find no difficulties in 
the way of this frequently dreaded operation. 
In the former case the selected queen may be caged in 
the queenless lot about mid-day, and the bees united in the 
evening. 
I have frequently been asked how to prevent fighting 
when placing one stock over the other. I have sometimes 
suggested wire-cloth between the two; but a still older 
plan I have advised has been that of placing a sheet of 
newspaper between, with a few holes pricked through the 
paper. This is not very tidy, but is always successful. 
Uniting by Exchanging Combs 
a day or two beforehand, is also another novel item I 
have frequently offered to my correspondents. This is | 
particularly useful where a nucleus having been confined 
in transit by rail or otherwise, is to be united to a weak 
stock on arrival. If the nucleus is placed near the stock 
and given a flight, it may next have one or two of its 
combs (without bees) exchanged for the same number 
from the stock, and the union completed during the third 
evening thereafter. 
Sprinkling with flour when uniting has been brought 
to notice through ‘the columns of the Bee Journals ; 
and there are many who will gain confidence by using 
it, though probably in the hands of a novice, careless 
handling will even then bring about a disaster occasionally. 
During the season J] am daily uniting bees under all 
* This plan of making both stocks queenless before uniting was 
given in my 1888 and following editions. 
