After a few weeks the bees in the two divisions will acquire the same scent and can be united. Should a spare queen be required one can be removed, if not the older one should be killed, for the bees should not be left to adjust the matter for themselves. A hole may be made in the dummy so that the bees can pass from one division to the other, and a few days after the dummy may be removed altogether. This procedure may be followed also in the autumn, especially if young queens are numerous and it is desired to save some. _Feeding Weak Stocks._--If facilities are not to hand for thus dealing with weak stocks, the frames not required by the bees should be removed from the hive, the space contracted by a dummy, and the bees fed inside the hive. In the autumn it is advisable to give weak hives frames of food that have been stored and sealed by a strong hive that is kept especially for such a purpose. Whenever inside feeding is adopted, the entrance aperture to the hive should be reduced so as to keep out bodies of raiders. The most efficient means of securing this is to place along the entrance a piece of perforated zinc with holes just large enough for one bee to pass through at a time. This prevents a rush of marauders and allows ample ventilation in the hive. _Uniting Stocks._--This procedure is not so common among English bee-keepers as it is with those in other parts of the world where the conditions are more favourable to a successful result. The reasons are chiefly because we can very seldom secure that the bees all work on the same flowers, and because most of our English bees are cross-breeds and therefore more addicted to fighting. It is not to be expected that a broken breed of bees will unite peacefully with a pure breed. [Illustration: Examining Frames] However, uniting is sometimes resorted to, and the method of procedure generally adopted in England is as follows. The hives to be united are brought nearer to each other gradually, not more than a yard or so at a time, and on fine days only, when the bees are flying about. The need for this precautionary care is that the bees soon lose their bearings if their hive is shifted to any great extent and will fly about until death ensues from exhaustion; while to enter a strange hive in mistake for their own is equally fatal for them. The actual process of uniting is accomplished by taking combs alternately from each hive and placing them in their new quarters, meanwhile spraying bees and combs with scented syrup, or dredging them with flour. I should, however, recommend the novice to "shake" or "drive" (see pp. 74, 79) each stock before uniting them, for hunger will do more to reconcile the bees to each other than anything else. The driven bees should be passed through a queen-excluder and the oldest queen, or queens, destroyed. This will save a battle royal in the new hive, and do much towards uniting the two sections of bees.