> I started keeping bees about four years ago but still have so many =
> questions. My most recent question is this: All five of my hives are in =
> my back yard (about 20 ft. apart) and as I was putting the Apistan in =
> last weekend, I discovered one of my hives was queenless. I combined it =
> with a NUC that had a good queen. I left an empty NUC box so the older =
> bees that were out foraging had a place to come home to. Is there any =
> way to save these foraging bees without starting another hive? Is there =
> a way to combine them with one of my other hives so that they would not =
> fly back to there old hive location?
>

One evening after flight has died down but not to late, smoke the queenright
hive well and remove the lid, smoking asyou go.
Place a single sheet of newspaper directly on the frames and put an empty
super on this. If you have an excluder it is wise to put this between the
newspaper and super in case you cannot return the next day or two. No frames
in super.

If you have frames in the nuc box then quickly smoke the entrance and under
the lid of the nuc and transfer the frames to the super 2 or 3 at a time.
Then dump loose bees left behind in too.
Close the hive down blocking any large gaps at the top with grass or
whatever is at hand and take the nuc box away. You don't need any boxes
where the nuc was.
If you have a flow on make sure you get back and take the empty box off, the
bees will have chewed through the newspaper in a day and be happily  united
so the next evening is fine to remove it. If you wait a week there may be a
little comb built.