Steve,

Two quick comments:

According to a queen breeder-—I have been doing a little reading myself as
I had written  the thread “Another Dud in Emergency” last week—-a virgin-
queen can be celibate for as long as three weeks under inclement weather
before she flies out to town to check out the old drones at the local
water-hole.  Still she could be hot.  Check under “Mating conditions” in
the following url:

http://members.aol.com/queenb95/queenrear.html#anchor412485

(Although the above information is trustworthy, I have never bought a
queen from the said source, however: the price is too stiff for me.)  Also
I would be very surprised if you do not have drones earlier than you
think.  The conventional wisdom in Shawnee, OK, is that there will not be
any drones in early March, a generally accurate statement and a reason
many Okie beekepers travel to Texas for early queen-rearing; however, this
year I found flying drones as early as the second week: they usually build
drone cells inbetween or below my black Pierco.  We are Zone 7 [hardiness]—
whatever that means.

At times, it is *very* difficult to locate a virgin queen; unless I see
other evidence such as laying workers or dwindling, I think queen-loss in
a hive is rather rare although possible.  Another thing I found today was
that the splits would not start building an emergency queen as quickly as
the impatient beekeeper had hoped for: they punch in their clock, sit
around the break room, and pick their nose, seemingly neglecting the most
important element of the hive--after three days.

Good luck with your re-queening,


Yoon

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