Hi Tom,
 However, only three days after introducing the new queen, I
> opened up the hive to retrieve the Butler Cage and had a bit of a look around.
>
> Afterwards I was told by a beekeeper that I should have stayed away from the
> hive for 6 days, otherwise the bees might reject the queen.
 
> My question is this: Are the bees not behaving against their own interests
> by killing the queen?
 
         There are several reasons they do this and if the colony is disturbed
before the new queen is well established it is more likely. Some factors
are queen quality, genetic similarity, colony size, and honey flow.
>
> If the hive does not have young eggs. they have no means of raising a new
> queen. They are thus faced with the prospect of laying workers which can
> produce drones only. Are they not thus on their way to extinction?. Can
> anybody give the rationale for their action (if that is what they have done).
 
        If there are no eggs or young brood they usually accept the new
queen-at least for a while. Sometimes they do not and as you said wind
up with laying workers. Geneticly this is OK. By producing drones they
are taking the last option they have to spread their own genes.
>
> One other question - should I have made the hive queenless some hours or
> days  before I introduced the new queen?. I did not do this - I removed the
> old queen just a few minutes before I inserted the new one.
 
 
        Some say this is important but I have not found any advantage to
waiting.