Garry writes "the advise of brood from a good hive with young eggs has its
appeal however i dont want to looose the mponth and a half to raise a new
queen..."

I found last week that one of what I considered my best colonies this year that
I had started from a swarm was queenless without a sign of eggs or brood ever
having been in it to dirty up the new combs.  The "brood pattern" was very nice
but just empty cells where brood should have been.  Too bad I didn't get a
queen with that one because I like the "work ethic" and even temperament of
these bees an awful lot.  I didn't see any evidence of drone layers either.
I combined this hive with a 3 frame nucleus that has a laying queen on
Saturday for the same reasons you gave.  Although my experienced beekeeper
friend suggested I just add a frame containing eggs and young larvae and let
them raise their own queen, now this colony has the chance of becoming one of
my best producers this year.  I think I've done the right thing for the results
I want to have.

Layne Westover
College Station, Texas