As I wrote earlier that there was no sign that there was ever a queen in the hive, I forgot to mention one detail I noticed. There were cup cells all over the place as if the bees had "hope" that somehow an egg would magically appear from somewhere. The colony started from a swarm. The open cells in the "brood area" were not dark enough to ever have been used even once in my estimation. What I couldn't figure out was how the bees did such a good job, even without a queen. There was not a single queen cell in the hive, only cup cells scattered throughout it. Having said that, I thank P-O Gustafsson for the suggestion to try the frame with eggs and young brood first to see if they start making queen cells to know for sure. In my particular case, I was confident enough to conclude I had never had a queen and to skip that step. I've made mistakes before and this may be one of them, but I'll report back on how things turn out. This evening I incorporated the swarm colony and the 3 frame nucleus together into a single hive body and put on some empty supers. Our main honey flow will be starting here soon and I have great hopes for this particular hive now. I think it may turn out to be my best one. I'll be embarassed to admit failure, but if I got it wrong, I'll let everyone know and learn from my experience to be more careful next time. Layne Westover College Station, Texas