Uniting without queen exclusion

[user 20297]

Assuming that you are certain that the colonies being united have only one queen, is it essential, other than as something to support the newspaper, that you use an intact QX.
Obviously, as soon as the paper is breached, the incoming workers have nothing to prevent them reaching the queen other than possible hostility from the recipient colony's workers. Leaving a queen excluder in place for any length of time traps drones, and some of these die. I've seen what appears to be an imbalance in the proportions of different "castes" of bees as a result of this. It all sorts out in the end, but would the queen be put at unnecessary risk if an excluder was omitted or if it was intentionally damaged to allow passage to the queen and drones.
This is in the scenario where the queenless hive is placed under the Q+ hive in the location of the latter.

 

[blackcloud]

A thin eke with a hole in the side or a snelgrove board will let drones out.
Some just spray glade into the box and combine without even the paper.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Assuming that you are certain that the colonies being united have only one queen, is it essential, other than as something to support the newspaper, that you use an intact QX.

No

 

[Martimart]

A thin eke with a hole in the side or a snelgrove board will let drones out.
Some just spray glade into the box and combine without even the paper.

That's how I combine, but with a mixture of peppermint essential oil and water and dowse the bee's in it. always worked ok.