Whoa Buddy...You're managing your bees like a project at work.
Micro-management is for inept employees. Bee's knows what they is doing, you
jest gotta help em along... A home spun queen is not a bad thing and here
you are sending Zorro after her.  A new queen in the hive is worth two in
the mail I always say.

You say you had a mess of drone brood yet queen cells. This would indicate a
failing queen as opposed to drone laying workers.   Now after your assault
on her you said she flew away and now you can't find her? Humm...
If your queen is not coming for a couple of weeks, I would let the other
queen cells hatch and let the queen take over...(note: Find a different
Queen supplier.  I get mine in 3 days all the way up here in Minnesota)

Also this searching 10 times in 8 days is a bit excessive.  I would guess
you have really ticked them off a bit and they are playing games with you.
:)

At this point I would take your least populated box.  Pull it off and place
it a ways from the hive.  The older bees will fly back to the hive leaving
only young bees (they will accept your queen more easily) and the next day
introduce the queen to them.  After a few days (3) put the box on top of
your other deep box seperated with a sheet of lightly slashed newspaper.
Check to see if they chew through in a couple days...help them if needed.

Now you ask what will happen if there is another queen in the hive?  They
will either co-exist (Not likely) Fight to the death (one likely will win)
or kill each other (Not likely).  You could check for eggs depending on how
long you think the old gal or in your case the young gal has been missing in
action.  No eggs and you know she's not home...


Dick Wm. Waskey
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