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DR. MILLER S 



the newspaper, nr do you use an empty hive-body so the bees will 

 g<i down quickly? 



A. It doesn't matter whether empty combs are left in the 

 upper story or not. The bees will unite just as quickly with or 

 without them. Of course, after the bees have had time to unite, 

 the two stories are reduced to one, the best combs of the two 

 stories being selected ti) till one story. 



Fig. 2'). — Two colonies united hy tlie newspaper plan. 



Q. I have just read about your way of uniting two colonies 

 by putting paper between them. Did you ever try putting a 

 queen-excluding honey-board between them? 



A. Yes, I have united with an excluder between the two colo- 

 nies. It is much the same as having nothing between the two 

 stories. In some cases — perhaps in most cases — bees will unite 

 peaceabl\- when one hive is set directly over the other, with no 

 excluder between. In some cases, of course, they would unite all 

 right witli an excluder. But too often it happens that if one hive 

 is set o\ er the other without any precaution, there will be a se- 

 vere fight. In that case I doubt if the excluder would do any 

 good. But the paper will. There is no possibility, with the paper, 

 that one set of bees can fall upon the others en masse. It will 

 take a bit of time for a hole to be made in the paper that shall 



