Hi Kristine

I did not join this discussion (uncharacteristic of me, I know) because I think that everyone is right. The use or non-use of newspaper depends on a lot of variables, including perhaps the most important one -- time. Most folks don't have time to fuss with newspaper, nor to check back to see what the result was. 

I once combined two colonies with no newspaper. The bees were different colors, so it was pretty easy  to see at a glance that the established colony stung every single foreign bee to death. If I had a very valuable queen that I was trying to introduce, I would never leave this process to chance. 

With a valuable queen I would always introduce her to a weak nuc, let them build up, and introduce them slowly using newspaper. Also, whether the bees are robbing is a factor in whether they are going to fight. During a honey flow you can get away with things that will not work when the bees are on edge.

PLB

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