(1) Just previous to the honey flow and at about the time that heavy brood rearing is no longer desirable, remove the queen from each colony, (_a_) Eight or ten days later destroy all queen cells but one and allow the colony to requeen itself, or (_b_) destroy _all_ queen cells 8 or 10 days after removing the queen, then after 3 to 6 days supply each colony with a "ripe" queen cell (one in which the queen is ready to emerge), a virgin queen, or a young laying queen. It is usually desirable that the interval of queenlessness be as short as possible without defeating its purpose. Some beekeepers give a young laying queen 10 days after removing the old one, or a virgin or ripe cell considerably earlier, sometimes even at the time the old queen is removed, while others prefer a period of at least 14 days before giving either a laying or a virgin queen. However, colonies with virgin queens sometimes swarm even though no other queen cells or larvæ from which to rear a queen are present. Another objection to the use of queen cells or virgin queens for this purpose is that some of the queens fail to emerge and some virgin queens fail to mate, thus leaving the colony hopelessly queenless. For these reasons, some prefer to have the young queens mate and begin to lay in "nuclei" (very small colonies) before introducing[6] them in the strong colonies. This method may be used for the entire apiary at the beginning of the honey flow or it may be applied only to those colonies making preparations to swarm. [6] The young laying queens may be introduced Into the colony by the ordinary indirect or caging method (Farmers' Bulletin No. 447, p. 44) or together with a comb of brood and adhering from the nucleus from which she was mated. (2) Use two hive bodies as a brood chamber before the honey flow, uniting if necessary to secure strong colonies. At the beginning of the honey flow divide each colony, leaving the field bees and most of the brood on the old stand in one hive body, placing the queen, remaining brood, and enough bees to care for it in the other hive body which is set beside the first. The supers are of course given to the queenless colony on the old stand, which after the proper interval of queenlessness is allowed to requeen itself or is requeened by the beekeeper as in (1) above. The colony containing the old queen may be used to strengthen the storing colony by shifting its position from one side of it to the other (p. 31), or used for increase.