>> 3.  Is it possible that the pupa in the queen cell was not a female
>> because the old queen seemed to be infertile and was laying nothing
>> but drones?
>
>Yes, but then they would not emerge - I wouldn't think -  at least they
>wouldn't emerge normally with a nice neat hole in the end. But I'm not
>sure, having never paid attention to this - does anyone else know the
>answer to this?
 
I believe the answer is no, although I don't have sources to quote.
I don't think the bees will continue to feed a drone pupa royal jelly,
hence the "male queen" won't go full term.  I think the source of this
opinion came from the article a few issues back in ABJ about the ideal
conditions for a hive to rear new queens.
 
>> 4.  When my new queen arrives from Kentucky, do I have to introduce
>> her in any special way in order that the existing bees will accept her?
>
>It is hard to introduce a queen to a drone layer. I'll let others try to
>answer this.
 
Agreed.  The only hopes for introducing a new queen to a drone laying
hive is to first introduce the queen to a nuc, and if successful, set
the nuc with the accepted queen up on the site of the original hive and
shake all the bees from the drone layer into the grass a few meters
away.  This information was gleaned from the conversations on this list.
The real problem here is introducing a new queen to a hive containing
mostly old bees.  You can't teach old bees new queens!  Queens are more
readily accepted by younger bees.
 
Hopefully the premise that originally prompted this question is in
error.  It's good, I guess, to have the new queen on her way (perhaps
she has arrived by now?), but I might wait a few days more to make
absolutely sure that the hive was not successful in rearing its own new
queen.  As Allen stated, two weeks for a newly emerged queen to start
laying is not out of the reasonable realm.
 
Please post an update to let us know how you make out!
 
Aaron Morris - I think, therefore I bee!