Greetings all,
     I was wondering if anyone out there could give me some insight into
something I found today in one of my hives.  I have a queen in a hive that
quit laying three weeks ago.  I foolishly thought the hive was queenless
because I could not find a single egg anywhere in the hive.  I ordered and
placed a new queen in the hive last Monday. I checked two days later, and
found the new queen dead on the bottom board.  On one of the next frames I
pulled, there was the old queen.  I ordered a new queen again, and this past
Friday, I searched the hive and caged the old queen. Still no eggs.  The new
queen arrived yesterday, and I removed the old, and later, placed the new
queen, in the hive with both corks in.  I checked the hive today, removed
the cork on the candy end, and checked the frames just to be sure there were
no replacement cells.  I went frame by frame, and checked for eggs, none
could be found.  I found a queen cup on the bottom edge of one of the
frames, and inside it I found a single egg! Question is, where did one
single egg come from?  Would the replacement queen pass an egg through the
screen of her cage, and a worker bee place the egg?  Is it possible that one
egg was laid by the queen that was killed and the bees moved it to the queen
cup?  I don't think if a queen were running around the hive, she would lay
just one egg.  Any possible explanations out there?  I found it to be a
little perplexing!  Thanks all,
Scott Moser