Don said:
 So I place a frame of new eggs from another hive with this one just to make
sure.
Two weeks later they are all capped, no queen cups?? I thought, they must
have a queen; she just hasn't been laying yet- this was about July 17.

When queenless they will *usually* build queen cells BUT not always. I still
agree with Don that the hive would seem to be queenright as no cells were
built.

Don said:
I went back to this hive today (aug 7) no eggs, only capped drone cells in a
tight pattern!

The drone cells in a tight pattern is not typical of laying workers.

If I were to guess I would say the old queen is still in the hive with
strong pheromones but is a drone layer.

Don said:
 So I intend to place this broodless hive on top of
a split, with a good queen, using the newspaper method.

One problem could arise if the above hive is put on top and has a drone
layer and that is she will most likely be the queen to survive. Check again
or run the bees through a queen excluder before combining or put the above
hive on the bottom and the hive with the queen you want on top.
The bees will tolerate a drone laying queen at times until the hive crashes
*if* she has strong pheromones.

Bob

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