Hello Mike & All,
.> Do you think the former queen is gone?

No eggs, larva or sealed brood I would say she is gone. No drone brood
means there has not been a laying queen in the hive for at least 26 days.

> Should I go ahead and try to install my new queen in the top super that
> has
 been separated from the rest of the colony with the queen excluder?

If there are other hives I would shake all the bees out a distance away and
sit a weak hive in he spot the other hive was in ( 26 days the bees could be
close to laying worker stratus).
or

use the bees to make up nucs using at least one frame of brood. two better
and the frames from different hives. A mix of bees from different colonies
provides better queen acceptance.

or

I have done the below below but really not worth my time.
use my package funnel and make up several packages  and sit in a cool place
with a caged queen. Three days later install each in hives.

A strong hive without brood ( and queenless for over three weeks is tough to
requeen) so  in most cases I simply shake the bees out like I would a laying
worker hive.


> I don't see evidence of eggs or young brood anywhere except for that one
> 'possible' egg in the supersedure cell.

My guess the first laying worker egg?

Maybe a hobby beekeeper has a better plan. Time is money with me and caged
queens are expensive o waste. The old queen may be sill in the hive but
damaged. ( still providing pheromones or else the bees would have drifted)
.When a queen stops egg laying she shrinks in size making her hard o
recognize and she wonders the hive. Many times small enough to pass through
an excluder.

When we get blow bees and have a new beekeeper with us we tell the beekeeper
we need to find and cage the queen. Unless the queen is marked almost an
impossible task in a strong hive after the end of the egg laying period.
Soon the beekeeper realizes he is the blunt of our joke.

With blow bees we simply shake several pounds in a package , transport and
shake into weak hives and may the best queen survive. The shake bees usually
contain less than one year old queens.

bob

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