John R. Valentine wrote:
When I opened the hive I found lots of bees, No
brood or eggs and about ten (supersedure) queen cells.  I decided not to
waste time and wait to see if in a week or two if I would end up with a
queen right colony.  I united the colony with a weaker one.  I placed
everything above the......
I wonder if I should have added a few frames of brood and given the
colony a shot at the winter. And I guess I'm wondering what would cause
this hive to go queenless this late in the our season.  Does anyone have
any ideas??
 
Hi John,
Sounds like they swarmed. Usually there are fewer supersedeure cells.
And I would guess that they had a virgin queen rather than no queen. Its
hard to say without a bit more info. Were the q cells open? If they were
not and all the brood has hatched they are defective. You should see at
least one cell opened normally, the others opened from the side. If the
q cells were not open they are either dead or the bees in them are from
eggs laid AFTER the queen stopped laying, in other words from laying
workers.
 
In any case your action was the safest. They may have made it through
the winter if they had a virgin, and if she mated, and if enough young
bees were produced before winter.