> My personal preference would be to combine the two hives.
> (Others may have a different preference.)  To do this,
> it is "best" to shake the bees in front of the queenright
> hive...

I'll go along with that.

Here's why I personally seldom try to requeen a hive: Unless it is recently
queenless, the bees are likely to be aging, and it may or may not accept the
new queen well.  Who knows, it may have a non-laying queen, or a cell, or a
virgin that will prevent successful introduction.  Combining with a good
queen-right hive will take care of all that and, besides, usually I have a
hive that I can combine it with to the benefit of both, and as Lloyd says,
make a new split later.

Splitting later is easy to do without searching queens by simply taking a
few brood frames, gently shaking the bees off, placing them in a new brood
box above an excluder on the hive for a while, and maybe smoking the
entrance to drive the bees up -- or simply leaving the lid off.  As soon as
there are more than enough bees in the new split and more than covering the
brood, which should be in all stages, it can be taken to another location.
There it can be allowed to raise a queen if the season is right and there
are lots of young bees, or given a queen.  She will likely be readily
accepted by the new split.

FWIW, when combining. I usually just set the two hives together without
paper or anything. This requires judgement, but if conditions are such that
bees that are shaken out will be accepted, then it is equally likely the two
hives will combine peaceably.  No guarantees tho' and in some districts this
is much harder to get away with.

allen