We salvaged a hive from a neighbor's felled tree and lost the queen in the process.  We put two boxes together, one of of "wild foundation" rubber banded on empty frames, and an upper box of empty foundation.  After a few days I saw no evidence of eggs or queen so with plenty of  wild brood, we ordered a new queen.  

Before I put the queen cage in, I checked again for signs of queen and found several queen cells- the wild bees had been busy.  I removed the cells and put the new queen cage in.   After 4 days she was released. The hive promptly swarmed 3 days later.  I caught the swarm and put them back but appeared to have missed catching the queen as I checked for eggs a week later, there were none. What I did find was a *queen cell* with the door open, hiding behind a flap of the wild foundation we moved.

Ordered a second new queen (there were just so many bees), checked for eggs (none) and she released after 3 days in the "upstairs" hive box.  A week later I saw her- still in the upper hive box and walking about- so I did not check for eggs.  Checked 2 weeks later (today) and see her walking around, but with hardly any entourage.  She is in the "upstairs" box, which is pretty much full of nectar and pollen.

In the "downstairs box" I find another queen- unmarked- but with very small, deformed wings.  She has the entourage of entourages, which is what drew my attention.  She is also in the lower hive box that has lots of empty cells and new foundation (I replaced some of the wild comb with framed foundation as the brood hatched).  After the sight of her registered, I picked her out and dispatched her.  I am thinking the two queens "had an agreement" and the new, marked queen was not laying as she had no where to go and was pretty much just hiding.  

The "wild" queen who would never mate, had the empty downstairs box for herself, but could not lay.

I am hoping there was just one "wild" queen in that lower box.  I am certain that when I was looking earlier for those queen cells earlier that I flipped the frames over and around, so any developing queen could easily have been deformed, or it was mites.  Whatever.  

What should be my next move with this hive?  Check for eggs again in a week?  Go through the hive and look for yet another wild queen?  Why would the new marked queen not have many followers?  Does the occasional "store bought queen" not lay?

We are in south central Missouri, with just 4 hives, in the woods with some open pasture.  Thank you for your help!

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