a Peter snip followed by > my comments..
Bees seem to be very aware of their queen's 'quality' (if that is the right word) and will sometimes supersede queens that look good to the beekeeper.

>bees may supersede queens for any number of reasons and these are not all about the quality of the queen...  ie most are environment but some are related to the beekeeper and how they do things.. I can create the situation in the spring of the year (when environmental conditions are just right... or wrong depending on your view) whereby a good number of smallish established 'nucs' will attempt to supersede the queen. 

>the person Liz Walsh that does queen work at the Texas A&M Lab tells me the size of the retinue around the queens tells you much about her 'quality'.  There is an old study (likely from an old book or a very old ABJ.. ie do not ask me for source) that states the weight of the queen at a specific age (young is what I recall) will give you an indication of her egg laying capacity and logically related to her reproductive plumbing...

>the old queen breeders had some pretty simple rules for evaluating a queen and none of these require you to carry a scale around and attempt to determine the weight of the queen... physical size and conformation were important but that is just were the evaluation began..

Gene eating that t bone and tossing the bone to the dog in Central Texas.... 

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