Hello all,
     Your right Jan, hadn't really thought of the load on the bees.  But
isn't it the hive bees that do the cleaning, not the foragers?   My whole
point was that it was a  lot of work for the bees to excrete new wax each
time the drone cells were cut out.
     Okay, have a problem here.  I have 2 Starline hives that appear to be
queenless. Nectar flow in Eastern Missouri has slowed, but Starlines in the
past have not shut down on me before.  Both hives have been trying to swarm
since the first of July, and I think they did, and failed to raise a queen.
Here are the facts:
        1.  No eggs, larvae, and VERY little capped brood.  (Maybe 1-2
frames per hive)
        2.  Both hives aggressive, noisy, little foraging activity evident,
many bees hanging out, when other nearby hives are foraging.
        3.   I placed a frame of eggs and larvae in  one yesterday to see if
they would draw out replacement queens. No evidence of that yet.  The other
received a frame 3 days ago, and 2 cells were evident on that frame, very
low down like swarm cells.
        4.  No eggs present in any queen cups, though both had wanted to
swarm a couple weeks ago.
        5.  Two, visual frame by frame examinations yielded no queen.
        6.  Today, I strained all bees through a queen excluder, and no
evidence of the queen.  I was watching carefully as I shook off each frame.
Unless she crawled out of the box and down the side, and I didn't notice, I
didn't see her.
     Is it realistic to assume that both hives are indeed queenless?  I
would hate to sacrifice a new queen, only to find out the queen is still
there.  Anything else I can try short of waiting?  I have begun to feed the
hives, in an effort to better accept a new queen, and to maybe stimulate a
queen that may be present.  Thanks folks!
Scott Moser