Dick,

I believe what you are describing is specific to your particular bees.
Based on the brood patterns, it's obvious enough to me that a large % of
colonies have a queen that stops laying for at least several days before
the next queen begins.  Are both queens present during this brood break?  I
have seen evidence to suggest that in a sizable fraction of colonies the
old queen is removed prior to the mating flight of the new one.

Sounds like your bees have selected a good trait.

Do you have many hives that become queenless/failure to supercede in your
apiaries?

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