Uniting after artificial swarm using Snelgrove board

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dickbowyer

House Bee
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Location
W Sussex, UK
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
Some hives and a few nucs
My recent preferred method of swarm control is to leave single frame of brood and queen with other frames of foundation in fresh brood box with queen excluder and supers replaced above with original brood box then on very top above Snelgrove board leaving only open queen cells. I then change entrance every four days until queens due to hatch to bleed bees back in to lower part of hive. This has given me a good honey crop and newly raised queen without cast swarm which is then moved in old brood box to out apiary to make increase.

I now have enough hives and queens are two years old and I would like to replace with daughters. What is the best way to unite the newly raised queen and bees above Snelgrove board with colony below?
 
I've done it using the traditional newspaper method. Although the Snelgrove board allows some odor to move between the two brood boxes, I've always heard its best to unite with newspaper. Would be curious to know if anyone has had success just combining the two brood boxes (after killing one of the queens).
 
Dick
Just remove the Q from lower BB then reassemble without the Snelgrove board - they are already'united' via the mesh insert in the board,
richard
 
Dick
Just remove the Q from lower BB then reassemble without the Snelgrove board - they are already'united' via the mesh insert in the board,
richard

Happy to do that but then you have new queen in supers above queen excluder - won't she continue to lay in supers or old brood box? How do you get down in to lower brood box under queen excluder.
 
I've done it using the traditional newspaper method. Although the Snelgrove board allows some odor to move between the two brood boxes, I've always heard its best to unite with newspaper. Would be curious to know if anyone has had success just combining the two brood boxes (after killing one of the queens).

Newspaper seems safest but in which order do you assemble stack so new queen ends up in lower brood box below queen excluder and no newspaper in supers?
 
When combining, switch the position of the brood boxes, so that the one with the supers is on top.
 

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