>Ted's book says that you should first kill the poorer queen, let them
>settle down, then place them on top of queen right colony with pricked
>newspaper in between.  I want to do the reverse, unite on the site of
>the poorer colony and put the queen right colony on top of the queen
>culled colony.  Is this okay to do??
 
We do it both ways.  The important factor is that the hive you bring to the
apiary should go on top as the hive already there has orientated to its
site.  However if you are uniting 2 hives already in the same apiary, I
would move the weaker one to the stronger site and put on top to minimise
confusion.
 
One poster stated he does not kill either queen before uniting.  Whilst it
is true that the queens will fight it out after uniting this leaves to
chance the queen who will survive (normally the younger) and risks both
queens being crippled or otherwise damaged.  When we do requeen without
dequeening it is always by allowing a virgin to hatch and mate prior to
taking on the older queen as in the Demaree method.
 
Beekeeping rules are general guides to procedure - subject to modification
in practice.
 
Betty McAdam
HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
j.h. & e. mcadam<[log in to unmask]
http://kigateway.eastend.com.au/hogbay/hogbay1.htm