Greetings All,
     I hope everyone is doing well, and that your bees are busy!  I think
summer has arrived to the St. Louis area.
     I have had an odd occurrence in one of my hives, and I don't know how
to explain what I found.  I am hoping that those of you out on the list can
help.  I have one hive that I am 99% sure was queenless.  Earlier in the
week, I went into the hive and could not find a queen.  I also found no
eggs,  or open brood.  I did find numerous queen cells throughout the hive
(in excess of 15 of then in various locations on the comb), and the bees had
placed nectar in most of the open cells in the brood area, despite having
plenty of super space above.  I can't say that the hive didn't swarm on me,
and I just missed it.  It is a hive I keep in my yard to use as a teaching
tool, and am in and around it frequently.  Swarmed or not though is beside
the point.  I know in the time frame that they could not have raised a
queen.  I introduced a new caged queen on Wednesday, and checked to see if
she had been released yet.  I checked the upper box, and found several play
cups, but the odd thing was, there were eggs in 5 of them and the new queen
was still caged!  I went through and did a thorough search of the hive, and
found no more eggs anywhere in any other cells!  I don't think the hive
would have a laying worker in it that quickly, and if there was, I would
think there would be more eggs elsewhere.  I have read on the list about the
bees moving eggs around the hive before.  Is it possible that the queen
could have passed the eggs through the screen?  Has anyone seen or heard
this before?  It has me scratching my head!  Thanks for your help!
Scott