Opening my only remaining hive (of two alive in the fall) this weekend, I found absolutely no brood or eggs but a good amount of bees. The forecast is for some possible snow in the next few days here in central Michigan, so I am wondering what to do about requeening. 1. Is it safe to assume the queen is gone or dead or do I need to do a thorough search for a possible non-functioning queen? 2. How warm should it be before I introduce the new queen? 3. If it's too cold when she comes how long can I keep her just giving her water (and/or syrup...?) through her cage screen? 4. Does it make any sense at all to wait for generally warmer weather to order a new queen? No laying workers .... yet. 5. Why and how did this happen? Any ideas? Any other suggestions or thoughts of course would be welcome. I just don't want to lose this good bunch of bees that have made it this far into spring. I am leaning toward trying a New World Carniolan from California for this requeening. Any reason not to? Too far to ship? Possible better acceptance of another strain? Thanks for any help offered, Alden Leatherman [log in to unmask]