pinching queens is a old still of beekeeping that has mostly gone out of practice, before mailing bee's was going most old timers use to do this in the dearth months right before fall flows started, they use to get queens that was up to snuff and a bunch of hive that didn't re queen themselves right was combined before winter, most now days just order well breed summer and fall queens and get a lot more and better hives going into winter than the old pinch stile, I am sure that some still pinch heads but if you going to pinch them then feed them good starting a week before and feed strong until cells are capped, just not worth the work and time for me, I still have 4 brood queens with yellow markings on them, those are 07 queens and still going strong, i will let the hive tell me when they need a new one ;) (because I am in these hives every 8-10 days), good luck