Keeping colonies queenright is part of swarm control and is of prime importance in clear brood nest systems in which the colony is the unit of management.

Colonies that have swarmed or that are preparing to swarm in spite of ordinary precautions, or that have inferior queens, should be requeened with virgins or with cells; and their queens, if good and of the previous year, should be caged and used later whenever a virgin in a colony or nucleus is lost in mating or otherwise, which may be determined by an examination about the ninth day. If combs have been made ready for worker eggs, the queen is mated or laying; but if drone cells are polished up, the young queen is missing and then it is well to introduce one of the good caged queens.

Introduction at such times is readily accomplished by placing the queen in a cage stopped with a bit of honey and wax (as burr comb) so that the queen may soon be released, and placing this cage on top of the inner cover over the bee escape hole, covering the hive with newspaper and pressing the outer cover down over it. The newspaper gives protection from the sun, robbers, etc., and marks the colonies to which queens have been given.

If telescopic covers are not used, queens can often be introduced safely by placing the cage between two combs or in the entrance of the hive; but introducing as described is a good method and gives a record for the next visit They have good acceptance because they are soon released and readily accepted by the young workers in the supers.

These queens soon descend into the brood nests; and, when they begin to lay, the honey which has been stored in the brood chambers during the queenless period is moved quickly into the supers thus giving the appearance of a honeyflow, when in reality there may be none. This simulated honey-flow must be considered when putting on additional supers.

Any other system of queen replacement which affords similar results may be used, the principle being a good queen in each hive when needed for egg laying.

In the spring, hives in which colonies have died, or colonies that are not up to standard spring condition, and extra hive bodies of brood which accumulate during the working, are put on as second stories for a short time, but are set off for increase as soon as possible, and are given queens by the same method of introduction. It is a safe method at this time because most of the field bees have returned to the parent hive, and the introduction is made to the remaining young bees.

It is generally agreed that good introduction of queens is important. Queens that have been balled or otherwise mistreated during introduction are apt to be superseded at any time. If a shortage of queens occurs, they could be purchased and introduced when conditions are right. No colony should be without a laying queen when one is needed.

In some regions having both an early and a late honeyflow, requeening may be desirable after the early flow, and an operator managing perhaps a thousand colonies may requeen as many as a hundred colonies each day for ten successive days. To get the best returns in honey, especially where a dearth immediately precedes the late flow, these operators use cells for requeening. They want a cessation of brood rearing after enough bees for the early flow have been reared, and the use of cells in requeening provides that no brood is reared during a part of this period of dearth, and that a young queen shall be on hand to lay all the eggs that will produce bees useful for the late honeyflow.

Using mated queens under such conditions results in loss, both through the rearing of useless workers and through Supersedure later; whereas the use of cells heads each colony with a young queen to carry it through the late summer and enables it to breed up to good winter condition. In using such wholesale methods of requeening, there are always some misses, and colonies which have failed to have queens mated may simply be united with queenright colonies for the late honeyflow. As a rule, it does not pay to bother with a second attempt at queen rearing under these conditions.

In clear brood nest systems, much requeening is done as a regular part of swarm control and in securing uniformity of colonies. Most queens should be replaced after one year of heavy laying in a large, or clear brood chamber. All queens two years old or more should be replaced if their colonies show any signs of swarming, although probably few queens of this age will remain. In clear brood nest systems, requeening is also done whenever any colony varies

A special box that can be used both for reservoir and for nucleus.

Studies of the cost of producing honey as well as observations made by competent beekeepers over many years, war from the standard condition and desired uniformity because of an inferior queen.

By August, probably three-fourths of the colonies have been requeened, which is more requeening than is usual either under let alone systems, or when some requeening is done by replacing a certain proportion of all queens, both good and poor, at some chosen season.

Clear brood nest systems and control of quality of queens go together. Breed good queens; replace immediately all poor queens and those whose bees have some undesirable quality. If records are not kept when colonies are managed as individual units, a poor queen is frequently carried over until next season unless the colony is requeened at the time the decision to replace is made; therefore it is important that queens in nuclei, or a "reservoir of queens, " be kept on hand to use at any moment.

rant the statement that good queens in every hive are the basis of uniformity of colonies which is, again, the foundation of success in honey getting.