At 07:35 PM 10/10/98 -0700, you wrote:
 
>A week ago I opened my hive to discover that the bees were building about a
>dozen or so queen cells. Today the queen cells are capped and there is no
>evidence of new larvae or the queen, so I thinks she's gone. I have seen no
>drones and I'm concerned that the new queen will have trouble finding mates
>at this time of year.
 
Maybe you don't have any in your hive but in your area there are enough
drones to mate with your queen if you have a few good days when she is
ready to mate.
 
>I live in coastal southern California where the bees can pretty much forage
>throughout the year.