who out there has done studies on the odour of the queen dissipating?  Got
some info for us to read/ discuss on that aspect?

Ha. Well I oversimplified a bit. The queen's presence was thought to be odor but later it was confirmed that it is "queen substance" which exerts influence over the bees of the hive. There no doubt an odor that accompanies it, as well as a taste. The bees lick and touch the queen and then distribute this substance throughout the hive. There is evidence that the removal of the queen is noticed by the bees in 30 minutes (Butler). However, studies of queen introduction give a clearer picture:

The length of time a colony has been queenless greatly affects its likelihood of accepting a queen, with colonies needing to be queenless for a longer period to accept virgin queens than mated queens.  

Direct introduction methods can be used to introduce mated queens into medium strength hives that have been queenless for 2 days.

Virgin queens aged 3-4 days were introduced into 5-frame hives than had been dequeened 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 days previously. Acceptance increased significantly with the length of time a colony had been queenless.

Source:
Direct introduction of mated and virgin queens using smoke: a method that gives almost 100% acceptance when hives have been queenless for 2 days or more. Journal of Apicultural Research and Bee World 47(4): 243–250

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