Ted and all,
In responce to your post about finding a dead hive in spring with a living queen: I realize this is somewhat off topic but last summer during our clover honey flow I was finding far too many hives that were dead with 4 or 5 combs of open brood and eggs and a live queen with from 0 to a few hundred workers. We suspect Imidacloprid was the cause of the hive deaths but it is interesting to see a queen still alive after all the workers are gone. I have seen the same situation you discribe as well. That queen must be some tough bug.
Al Picketts
Kensington, PEI, Ca.