Queenless colonies usually have the brood
chamber packed out with pollen.  If they were ceasing pollen collection
because they were queenless then there should be none or minimal pollen
stored in the brood box.

I think it's worth pointing out that a self regulating system like a bee colony is not able to turn on a dime. Or I should say, they can mobilize quickly when needed but shutting off an ongoing process may be more difficult. 

In the case of pollen storage, it is easy to imagine that you have several thousand bees whose sole occupation is to gather as much pollen as possible, to keep up with demand. If the queen dies and the demand for nursing suddenly falls off, these foragers may need time to adjust. In the meantime, the colony might develop a very large surplus of pollen. 

This, in contrast to honey collection, which has no upper limit except running out of space (Seeley, Winston, Fewell, etc). It is also worth noting that while many are in agreement on the concept that the colony limits pollen collection, nobody yet knows how they do this. (Hey team, we got enough already!)

PLB

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