Very likely in April, drone-eggs will be laid in drone-comb. I have had drones flying on the first of May. As soon as the drones commence to hatch out, remove the queen and all eggs and uncapped brood from some good, strong colony, and replace it with eggs or brood just hatched from the colony that is being fed, or if two equally good colonies have been stimulated, from the one in which no drone-comb was placed. The queen which has been removed may be used in making a new colony, in manner soon to be described under "dividing or increasing the number of colonies." This queenless colony will immediately commence forming queen-cells (Fig. 56). Sometimes these are formed to the number of fifteen or twenty, and they are started, too, in a full, vigorous colony, in fact, under the most favorable conditions. Cutting off edges of the comb, or cutting holes in the same where there are eggs or larvæ; just hatched, will almost always insure the starting of queen-cells in such places. It will be noticed, too, that our queens are started from eggs or from larvæ but just hatched, as we have given the bees no other, and so are fed the royal pabulum from the first. Thus, we have met every possible requisite to secure the most superior queens. By removal of the queen we also secure a large number of cells, while if we waited for the bees to start the cells preparatory to natural swarming, in which case we secure the two desirable conditions named above, we shall probably fail to secure so many cells, and may have to wait longer than we can afford. Even the apiarist who keeps black bees and desires no others, or who has only pure Italians, will still find that it pays to practice this selection, for, as with the poultry fancier, or the breeder of our larger domestic animals, so, too, the apiarist is ever observing some individuals of marked superiority, and he who carefully selects such queens to breed from, will be the one whose profits will make him rejoice, and whose apiary will be worthy of all commendation. As will be patent to all, by the above process we exercise a care in breeding which is not surpassed by the best breeders of horses and cattle, and which no wise apiarist will ever neglect.